Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued on November 8, 2026, that ETH should be valued as a store of value rather than for the transaction fees Ethereum burns. He said the burn was “never a true floor” for ETH’s price and that its value comes instead from the network’s decentralization, resistance to censorship and security.
The argument marks a shift from the “ultrasound money” message used after Ethereum began burning part of each transaction fee in 2021. Ethlabs founding member Binji Pande agreed with Buterin and claimed ETH was a more “future-proof” store of value than Bitcoin, citing potential AI and quantum threats.
