In the cryptocurrency world, there are daily criticisms of Ethereum for not being reliable; not only does it fail to rise above Bitcoin, but the foundation also constantly sells coins, 'holding it back'. Bitcoin surged to $65,000 in 2021 and is projected to break $100,000 in May 2025; meanwhile, Ethereum plummeted from $4,100 to $1,300 in the same year, experiencing a drop of over 68% in six months. Each time the market crashes, it falls harder than Bitcoin, earning it the criticism of being 'unrecognized by its mother'—not without reason.

The Ethereum Foundation's coin selling acts like a 'panic button' for the market. In August 2024, it transferred 35,000 ETH to exchanges, claiming it was for ecological development, but everyone remembers how it precisely escaped at the market peak during the bull run in 2021—selling at $3,500 in May and $4,677 in November, after which the market crashed. Now, whenever a large transaction occurs on-chain, retail investors panic and sell off immediately; even if the data suggests minimal long-term impact, the market explodes at the sight of coin selling.

However, Ethereum is not completely beyond saving. The Pectra upgrade in May 2025 directly caused the coin price to soar by 40% in just three days, and the future implementation of sharding technology could increase transaction speed from 30 TPS to 100,000 TPS. Institutions haven't given up either; Strategy Company bought 1,900 ETH like crazy from April to May, holding over 550,000 coins. With the change in the regulatory atmosphere in the U.S. becoming friendlier, if the stablecoin bill is enacted, Ethereum, as the leader in DeFi and NFTs, is likely to benefit from liquidity dividends.

Ultimately, Ethereum is like an excellent student who is being harshly criticized; although its performance has declined, its foundation still exists. As long as there are no hiccups in technological upgrades and regulation, returning to $4,800 within two years is not impossible. Ordinary players should not treat it as a 'faith' to gamble everything on; using Bitcoin as a foundation while holding some ETH to observe is the wise choice.