Polygon Founder Questions Loyalty to Ethereum on X

Nailwal’s comments prompted a response from Vitalik Buterin, who praised Polygon’s impact but maintained it isn’t a true Ethereum layer 2 due to missing security ￰0￱ response to this, Solana leaders invited Polygon to join their ecosystem. Meanwhile, BitMine chairman Tom Lee doubled down on his bullish outlook for Ethereum by revealing a $250 million ETH purchase that brought BitMine’s holdings to 3.3 million tokens worth over $13 ￰1￱ also still firmly believes that ETH’s price could hit $10,000 before the end of the ￰2￱ Nailwal Hits Out at Ethereum Polygon co-founder and CEO Sandeep Nailwal openly criticized Ethereum’s leadership, and accused the Ethereum Foundation and its community of failing to recognize or support Polygon’s contributions to the Ethereum ￰3￱ a post that was shared on X yesterday, Nailwal said he was “questioning his loyalty” to Ethereum, despite Polygon’s long-standing position as one of the network’s key scaling ￰4￱ claimed that Polygon’s decision to brand itself as an Ethereum layer 2 rather than a layer 1 likely cost it billions in potential ￰5￱ also claimed that the Ethereum community’s lack of appreciation became much more difficult to ignore.

“The Ethereum community as a whole has been a shit show for quite some time,” Nailwal wrote, and urged the community to reflect on its internal culture and leadership ￰6￱ comments led to a heated debate across the crypto space and even drew a direct response from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik ￰7￱ responded by acknowledging Polygon’s major contributions to Ethereum’s ecosystem, including hosting the largest predictions market platform Polymarket, and pioneering advancements in zk-EVM ￰8￱ also praised Nailwal’s philanthropic projects through CryptoRelief, which helped fund healthcare and biomedical research in India. However, Buterin stopped short of calling Polygon a true Ethereum layer 2, and said that it still lacks a proof system required for full Ethereum-level security ￰9￱ explained that while Polygon could adopt an existing zero-knowledge (ZK) technology stack to achieve this, the team has yet to implement such an upgrade.

Nailwal’s comments were made amid wider concerns about the Ethereum Foundation’s internal leadership and ￰10￱ pointed to a letter from former Ethereum Foundation researcher Péter Szilágyi that expressed frustration with the organization, as well as the recent departure of early Ethereum developer Eric ￰11￱ left in January due to disagreements with Buterin’s leadership. Nailwal’s post also attracted support from several Solana executives, including co-founder Raj Gokal and former head of strategy Austin ￰12￱ encouraged Polygon to consider teaming up with Solana or even becoming a layer 2 solution on its rival blockchain. X post from Austin Federa BitMine and Tom Lee Still Bullish on ETH Other people in the industry are a lot more optimistic about Ethereum and its path ￰13￱ chairman Tom Lee confirmed that the company went on an Ethereum buying spree after one of the crypto market’s largest deleveraging events earlier this ￰14￱ explained that open interest levels for Ethereum returned to where they were on June 30, when the token traded close to $2,500.

He described the current market setup as an “attractive risk/reward” opportunity, driven by what he called Ethereum’s ongoing “Supercycle.” On Monday, BitMine bought another $250 million worth of ETH from crypto exchanges Bitgo and Kraken, according to blockchain analytics platform Arkham ￰15￱ acquisition adds to BitMine’s already impressive Ethereum reserves, and brought its total holdings to over 3.3 million ￰16￱ is valued at more than $13 billion, and represents about 2.74% of Ethereum’s total ￰17￱ has been one of the most vocal institutional bulls on Ethereum, and recently reiterated his belief that Ethereum could still hit $10,000 before the end of the ￰18￱ the Bankless podcast last week, he stood by that forecast, and argued that the current market conditions make the asset deeply undervalued relative to its long-term ￰19￱ reach that target, ETH will need to climb roughly 150%.

BitMine’s aggressive accumulation strategy coincided with a sharp rise in its stock ￰20￱ of BitMine (BMNR) surged 7.92% on Monday to trade at $53.80, which is a 691% increase over the past six ￰21￱ attributed the rally to growing institutional interest, as BitMine and Strategy (MSTR) together now account for almost 88% of all global digital asset treasury trading volume. BitMine’s share price over the past 6 months () BitMine is currently the world’s largest Ethereum treasury ￰22￱ next biggest public holder, SharpLink Gaming, holds around 840,000 ETH, according to data from ￰23￱ collectively now own more than 5.74 million ETH, equivalent to roughly 4.75% of the total token supply.