Ethereum is seeing record activity, but Vitalik Buterin wants the market to focus less on ETH burn and more on its role as a long-term store of value. According to an unfolded chart using Coin Metrics data, Ethereum mainnet averaged 2.16 million transactions and 899,000 active addresses per day in 2026 through November 4. Yet higher network activity does not automatically mean more ETH deflation. Since EIP-1559, Ethereum burns part of each transaction's base fee. But as the network scales, processing capacity improves and transaction costs fall. More transactions can therefore coexist with relatively low ETH burn. In fact, EIP-1559 was primarily designed to improve transaction fee pricing. Supply reduction was a consequence, not its only objective. Vitalik's broader vision is for ETH to derive value from Ethereum's scalability, security, reliability and economic role. Proposals such as EIP-7999, FOCIL and Frame Transactions reflect research in these areas, though they have not all been implemented. The bigger challenge is competition. Tokenized assets, stablecoins and RWA are expanding across multiple chains, including Solana, Avalanche and Canton. Growth in these markets does not automatically translate into demand for ETH. For ETH to become a durable store of value, collateral asset and source of ecosystem liquidity, its role in payments, collateral, liquidity and network security matters more than burn alone. Burn remains important, but high transaction volume, fee revenue or token destruction does not necessarily create sustainable demand for a blockchain's native asset.