Michael Saylor raised doubts again about a weakening of Ethereum’s competitiveness, but some in the broader market said it was hard to view it immediately as a collapse in confidence.

Blockchain media outlet U.Today reported on Wednesday local time that Saylor argued confidence had weakened as Solana, BNB Chain, Sui, Hyperliquid and a number of Layer 2 networks put pressure on Ethereum.

Saylor’s core argument is that practicality, not narrative, is the standard that determines whether an ecosystem succeeds or fails. Ethereum recently showed relatively weak performance among major cryptocurrencies during a market downturn. Its price traded below the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages, and it was presented as having broken key support levels. The relative strength index stayed for a time in oversold territory, and the price slid to around $1,600.

The issue does not stop at price weakness. Solana is leading retail investor activity, and Hyperliquid has grown into a major player in the perpetual futures market. An assessment was also raised that Ethereum’s Layer 2 strategy secured scalability but resulted in dispersing liquidity across multiple networks.

Still, it is hard to say confidence in Ethereum has collapsed. The argument is that if confidence had truly collapsed, institutions would have no reason to keep expanding Ethereum-based businesses. Ethereum is still cited as maintaining the deepest smart-contract ecosystem and as the network where the most DeFi liquidity is concentrated. It continues to serve as a key settlement layer for several institutional blockchain projects.

A gap between Saylor’s past comments and the current market was also highlighted. In 2024 he said spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund approval was unlikely and that Ethereum would not gain meaningful institutional acceptance. But spot Ethereum ETFs later appeared, attracting billions of dollars and establishing themselves as institutional investment products. Investors have called this a “historic irony.”

It is hard to deny that Ethereum faces a challenging market environment. As growth in network activity slows and price moves remain limited, rival networks are expanding their share. Still, investors do not see Ethereum as being in an existential crisis, because it is still maintaining its position as the largest smart-contract platform in terms of economic value, developer activity and institutional adoption.

In the end, the market is revaluing Ethereum at a cheaper price level. Investors are waiting for evidence that the Ethereum ecosystem can keep growing even in a far more competitive environment. The points to watch going forward are expected to be a recovery in network activity, liquidity issues and whether institutional demand remains sustained rather than a price rebound itself.

Saylor just said confidence in $ETH has collapsed, $SUI collapsed after being hyped as the next Solana, and the rest of crypto is fighting for utility. “They’re not money.” Bitcoin is the only dominant digital monetary network. https://t.co/HylCv5HlBK pic.twitter.com/sJcmnA6As9