Hoffman's Clearance, Tom Lee, and the "Sidekick" Emerge as the Most Loyal HODLers, Ethereum Faces "Midlife Crisis"

BlockBeats News, May 21st, Today, may be a dilemma for ETH's steadfast hodlers. As the long-time advocate of the Ethereum ecosystem, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman, who has experienced two full bull-bear cycles, announced he has sold all his ETH holdings.

Meanwhile, amidst the rise of HYPE and ZEC against the trend, ETH is still struggling: it does not follow the bull market and falls hard in the bear market, with several ETH OGs completely exiting the market in this cycle. At the same time, the community is in constant dispute over governance models and development directions, while the Ethereum Foundation keeps selling off its holdings. The funds that have been distributed have yet to incubate any star projects, and after 11 years, ETH seems to be facing a "midlife crisis."

At this moment of "being alienated by the crowd," Tom Lee and his "buddy" seem to be the market's last and most loyal ETH guards, although both have been "battered and bruised."

Tom Lee has been continuously accumulating a substantial amount of ETH through his Bitmine and is steadily moving towards his goal of accumulating 5% of the supply. Despite Tom Lee's strong determination to hold long-term, his position is currently at a $7.2 billion unrealized loss, a number rarely seen in financial history.

Meanwhile, despite experiencing dozens of liquidation events, his "buddy" remains firmly in long ETH positions. During tonight's downturn, his "buddy" continues to add to his position aggressively. At the time of writing, ETH has become his last remaining long position, currently holding a $10.92 million ETH long position with a liquidation price of $2077.

BlockBeats believes that the biggest issue ETH is currently facing is a lack of "value capture." Despite the thriving L2 ecosystem and strong growth in stablecoins and RWAs, the low fees on Layer 1 and continuous sell pressure from the foundation have hindered ETH's deflationary mechanism from being effective. Whether it can rebound in the future through upgrades, more institutional adoption (such as stablecoin tokenization), and the combination of AI and blockchain to overcome the "midlife crisis" remains to be seen.