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Right Now We’re on the Brink of Ethereum Civil War

Is Ethereum price about to spark a civil war? The Future of Ethereum hangs in the balance as Ether price damages confidence in ETH.

By Isaiah Mccall

Last Updated: Jan 9, 2025

Fact checked

By Sam Cooling

Is Ethereum price about to spark a civil war? The Future of Ethereum hangs in the balance as Ether price damages confidence in ETH.

Is Ethereum price about to spark a civil war? The Future of Ethereum hangs in the balance as Ether price damages confidence in ETH.

On a more technical level, some say Ethereum (ETH) is facing a problem overbuilding its blockchain capacity. 

In simple terms, “overbuilding” means Ethereum Price Volume in 24h Price 7d is adding so much capacity and so many scaling solutions—like rollups, sidechains, and Layer 2s—that it’s flooding the network with more resources than there are demand. 

This overcapacity allows investors to invest in other chains, including those L2s, and dilute Ethereum’s fee revenue.

Various ETH L2s
(L2s)

Since then, investors like Joe McCann, CEO of the hedge fund Asymmetric, have said Ethereum is more academic than practical. In 2024, Péter Szilágyi, an Ethereum Team Lead, said, “Ethereum is losing the plot.”

And creator of Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin’s own mother, YES, seriously, his mom, who is also a dev for her project Metis, also believes that $ETH layer 2s are too centralized.

Ethereum is having a civil war for its direction. If you’re an investor in a project and not in a cult, you should take time to understand where $ETH is heading and how it aims to fix these problems.

Ethereum Civil War: Will L2s Undermine $ETH’s Value?

Layer 2s are essential to Ethereum remaining the number two cryptocurrency by market cap and achieving its goal of becoming a new decentralized internet. 

Some of the most popular L2s chains by market cap include:

  • Arbitrum
  • Optimism
  • Polygon – the chain that hosts Polymarket
  • And zkSync

The new and popular argument against them is that Layer 2 solutions often rely on less secure consensus mechanisms, potentially exposing users to risks.  As more transactions move to Layer 2s, it also incentivizes users to invest in those projects instead of Ethereum.

After all, if I liked interacting on Polymarket, why invest in Ether when I could buy Polygon tokens?

Confucius once said, “The man who chases two rabbits catches neither.”

Bitcoin is gold 2.0, and Solana is the degen chain for trading altcoins and memes. Ethereum is a world computer, NFT hub, ultrasound money, memes, Shiba Inu, GameFi … literally everything!

But can Ethereum fix any of these problems?

Do you want the short answer?

3. No.

Just kidding. Yes!

Ethereum is improving slowly, with the network stuck in the middle of the scaling cycle of its roadmap, but 2025 could be a big year for the network regardless.

Here are some predictions and updates for Ethereum in 2025.

(Roadmap)

First on the docket is proto-dank sharding (aka EIP-4844), which is set to make Layer 2 scaling cheaper and faster—think fewer fees and more usage on Ethereum.

Yes, a name like proto-dank sharding sounds more like the Gamertag of someone teabagging you in Halo, but proto-dank sharding will drive network usage back to the settlement layer. 

Then there’s Ethereum’s next big update: The Verge, which will reduce hardware needs by using Verkle trees, which could make running an Ethereum node as easy as using a smartphone. More validators = more decentralization.

(CoinGecko)

Ethereum also plans to implement The Purge and The Splurge. Yes, there’s a theme to these updates, or clearly, the people naming them have a hard time with Dr. Seuss.

These two updates will remove unnecessary historical data and refine any remaining rough edges, lightening the network’s load and boosting overall efficiency.

The last technical upgrade is Ether’s goal to “SNARK everything,” which aims for better security and privacy. It allows transactions to be verified with minimal resources—a massive leap for efficiency.

SNARKs—short for Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge—would make the network faster, more private, and less dependent on Layer 2 solutions for scalability, potentially reinforcing ETH’s value as Layer 1 demand could grow again. 

EXPLORE: 15 New & Upcoming Coinbase Listings to Watch in 2025

Ether Price Prediction 2025

So, what’s a realistic price prediction for Ethereum after all these upgrades?

Well! It’s a mixed bag.

With only half of Ethereum’s roadmap complete by 2025, we may still see it underperforming some competitors like Solana and Sui.

But here’s the deal: a $5,000 ETH in 2025 is still achievable if it can balance Layer 1 and 2 demands, especially with ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, now in play. We’ll keep you updated!

For More Details Check Out: 99Bitcoin’s Ethereum Price Prediction For The Next 5 Years

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Isaiah Mccall
Isaiah Mccall
Crypto Analyst

Isaiah McCall is an ultramarathon runner and journalist for 99Bitcoins. He started at USAToday in 2019 and now has a Medium blog following of 30k+ and millions of views. Follow him at @AfroReporter Read More

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