While Old Huang’s melon has become today’s focal point, many may have missed that Vitalik actually wrote a long article discussing Ethereum’s future value—and this could fundamentally shift ETH’s valuation logic and trajectory. In short: V has personally dismantled the previous narrative of ETH’s deflationary burn, pivoting its valuation framework to that of a “store of value.” During the 2021–2023 cycle, the market constructed a perfect net present value (NPV) model for ETH: Market Cap = Annual Burned Fees / Discount Rate. The consensus was clear: as long as on-chain activity thrived, the continuous destruction of ETH native tokens would support a solid theoretical floor price. But Vitalik admits this illusion is extremely fragile: the peak burn volumes were largely driven by internal leverage and speculation within the ecosystem (e.g., Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale burning $180 million in fees in a single day). Once a bear market hits, this profit and purchasing power evaporates instantly. Even more realistically, with Layer 2s completely siphoning traffic away from the mainnet, Ethereum’s burn mechanism has become functionally obsolete. Vitalik acknowledges in the article that sustaining ETH’s current ~$270 billion market cap solely through fee burns would force Ethereum into hyper-aggressive commercialization—directly undermining its core principles of decentralization and censorship resistance. To preserve its foundational value, Vitalik offers a pragmatic new direction: retreat to the role of a Store of Value (SoV). He argues that Ethereum’s true moat is the stability conferred by decentralization. In an era where AI is disrupting everything, stability itself has become a mandatory requirement for asset allocation. Positioning ETH as a store of value is not merely an ideological choice—it is the most pragmatic business positioning possible. Abandoning the obsession with being a “tech stock” generating cash flows, ETH now aligns itself with “digital gold.” At this turning point, ETH’s valuation logic has undergone a complete paradigm shift. Yet, ETH is still not BTC. The store-of-value narrative still has a long way to go in terms of token design and community consensus.