Why Ethereum devs are losing faith in EF

Plus: Is DOGE heading for an ETF launch?

GM. The market’s throwing lemons again, but chill – we’re here to whip up a pitcher of freshly squeezed crypto lemonade (extra sweet, zero seeds).

🗣 Ethereum Foundation drama.

🍋 News drops: Kraken’s donation to Ross Ulbricht, Tornado Cash’s legal W + more

🍍 Market flavor today

If crypto had a journal, today’s entry would be like, “Dear Diary, still trying to figure myself out. Hope tomorrow’s the day” 📓

After going to the Extremes of Greed yesterday, the Fear & Greed Index took a step back to just Greed. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s been steadily going downhill to hit $102K.

Trader Krillin expects BTC to stay between $100K and $110K until the Fed’s FOMC meeting later this month.

That’s when the Federal Reserve announces whether they’ll increase interest rates, which affects the entire economy, including crypto:

If they raise rates, borrowing money costs more, so fewer people feel like risking it in crypto;
A higher interest rate can make the dollar stronger. When the dollar looks good, some see less need for an alternative store of value like Bitcoin.

Right now, CME FedWatch says the market expects the Fed to just keep things as they are, but hey, anything can happen.

And if you’re feeling a little nervous about all this, here’s some hope from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: he believes Bitcoin could hit $700K.

Why? Because of fears about currencies losing value and shaky economic or political situations.

Fink explained that if big asset managers allocated even a tiny slice – like 2% to 5% – of their funds to Bitcoin, it could push prices sky-high.

Then there’s Dogecoin, which has been slipping like Bitcoin today but still gives us reasons to be optimistic:

Its logo showed up on the official government website for the DOGE agency;
Dogecoin whales have been increasingly active, which is often seen as a bullish sign;
Rumor has it a DOGE ETF filing is in the works, possibly hitting the market as soon as early April.

Honestly, if crypto keeps journaling, we might need to step in. Self-reflection’s great, but c’mon, we need action! 😡

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Ever scrolled past a meme and thought, “This is going places?” Well, the places in question might just be the moon:

	Name		24H Change
	Vine Coin VINE		▲ 245K%
	STONKS STONKS		▲ 12K%
	Mafia MAFIA		▲ 10.9K%
	HQ Trivia HQ		▲ 9.4K%

Data as of 06:10 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

Things are looking pretty… uh, complicated on the Ethereum front.

Good ol’ Ethereum’s been lagging for quite a while now – its price increased by 45% this year, while Bitcoin and Solana pulled +161% and +200%, respectively.

It’s really a meme at this point.

Actually, while it is kinda funny, many also see it as a major red flag. Analyst Ignas broke it down:

Fewer validators wanna do the hard work (cuz why bother if rewards are smaller?)
DeFi apps using ETH as collateral face bigger liquidation risks;
Devs might start looking at other blockchains if they see Ethereum as a meh investment;
Many DAOs hold ETH, so if its price goes down, their budget shrinks.

This frustration 👆 is making people give a look to the Ethereum Foundation (EF) – the organization in charge of supporting Ethereum’s development, research, and growth.

Well, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, decided to respond to all the drama and remind everyone that the EF’s leadership structure is getting a makeover. And he has specific goals in mind:

Improve technical expertise at the top;
Improve communication with the whole ecosystem;
Bring in fresh talent;
Be more supportive of app builders;
Use decentralization & privacy tech more, including for EF’s own payments and treasury.

Then he hit us with a list of things they won’t do:

“Execute some kind of ideological / vibez pivot from feminized wef soyboy mentality to bronze age mindset” (yes, this is legit what he said);
Suck up to regulators and politicians;
Become a super centralized organization.

But this announcement didn’t quite win the community over. Instead, it triggered a wave of more complaints about EF, like:

They’ve been slow to fix issues like transaction speeds and Ethereum’s appeal to devs;
Nobody knows how EF actually works;
They’re way too cautious;
EF employees don’t even use Ethereum regularly;
They’ve been selling ETH to pay salaries, which rubbed people the wrong way;
Etc etc etc.

But the cherry on top: people want leadership changes. To be more specific, they want Aya Miyaguchi (EF’s Executive Director) out and Danny Ryan (an Ethereum dev) in.

And this one had Vitalik triggered:

This post made some ETH community members even more unhappy and prompted some ETH Maxis, like Eric Conner, to step away.

He said, “I’ve lost my passion for Ethereum because EF would rather protect feelings than listen to a community demanding change.” Damn. Alexa, play some sad violin music 😔

But! It’s not only cutting onions, dogs waiting for their owners, elders eating alone, a stuffed animal some kid forgot at a park, a birthday party where no guests came vibes out here. Some think that this might be the push Ethereum needed to go up:

Sooo… is this the time to cue the training montage with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background? We’ll see.

🍋 News drops

🐙 Kraken sent $111,111 in BTC to Ross Ulbricht – a show of support on behalf of the Bitcoin community.

🌪 Tornado Cash caught a legal W. A US court overturned sanctions imposed against it after the platform allegedly helped North Korean hackers launder money.

💰 Lawmakers in North Dakota are considering a bill that would limit crypto ATM withdrawals to $1K a day. They say it’s needed because these ATMs aren’t as secure as traditional ones.

🙅‍♀️ Cathie Wood of ARK Invest says she isn’t gonna invest in the TRUMP memecoin. Her plan? Stick to the big three – Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana.