There is nothing Real about Real Economic Value (REV)

Ethereum is not focused on MEV (Maximum Extractable Value), which represents an outdated and narrow way to assess blockchain activity. As a result, its REV (Real Economic Value, a derivative of MEV) is not maximized, by intent.

Instead, Ethereum has prioritized scalability, fee fairness (via the burn mechanism), and low inflation. This leads to a more predictable monetary policy, comparable to central bank models like the Federal Reserve, bringing it closer to Bitcoin’s fixed-supply philosophy. While Bitcoin’s supply continues to grow at approximately 1.5% annually, Ethereum’s is around 0.6% and is sometimes deflationary. These characteristics give ETH strong scarcity traits; an often overlooked aspect, making it a global monetary asset.

Evaluating Ethereum solely through the lens of REV is overly reductive. Ethereum is both a platform and a currency, and each component must be assessed on its own merits.

As a platform, Ethereum should be evaluated based on adoption metrics such as developer activity, app ecosystem growth (app capital), total value locked (TVL), tokenized real-world assets, stablecoin usage, NFT trading volumes, and both consumer and institutional participation.

As a monetary asset with commodity-like qualities, ETH should be assessed through its monetary characteristics: inflation rate, circulating supply, issuance model, security budget, transfer volumes, burn rate, and its role as collateral in decentralized finance.