[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo] David Hoffman, known as an Ethereum bull, sold all of his remaining ether last week. Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday that Hoffman judged ETH already reflects the price it should command in the market and that the scope for a re-rating is limited.

Hoffman, a co-founder of Bankless, said on X that Ethereum has achieved enough to justify its current market capitalisation, but that opportunities for ETH to be re-rated in the market are dwindling. He saw the investment thesis that “ETH is money” as having lost much of its force.

The thesis argues that ETH could become a better store of value than fiat currencies by adopting a decentralised structure and introducing mechanisms to curb new issuance. But the price of ETH did not meet those expectations. ETH hit an all-time high in August last year at below $5,000 and is now trading at around $2,000. Price moves over the past 5 years have also largely stayed within a range.

Hoffman disclosed on May 21 that he had sold all his ETH. He remained bullish on the Ethereum network itself, however. He pointed out that while Ethereum provides secure blockspace and tokenisation at cost, layer2 networks take most of the fees and profits.

Hoffman judged that the Ethereum network could deliver very strong results in the future, but that only a limited portion of that success would be reflected in the price of the ETH token.

Market reaction was mixed. Ryan Sean Adams, a co-founder of Bankless, called the decision “the end of an era.” Former Ethereum core developer Eric Conner said he could understand Hoffman’s judgment, noting that ETH has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market for years. He cited persistent selling pressure from early investors who made big gains, rather than fundamental flaws in the protocol, as the backdrop to that underperformance.