2025 Will Be a Year of Crypto Competition. Can Ethereum Make a Comeback? - Ep. 760

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Business News, Tech News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ethereum, once the undisputed leader in the smart contract ecosystem, is facing intense competition from Solana, which has outpaced Ethereum on key metrics such as developer growth. Meanwhile, debates rage within Ethereum’s community over governance, scalability, and the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership. Adding to the disruption, AI agents are rapidly reshaping DeFi and token launches, reducing barriers to entry and creating new opportunities—and risks—for founders and investors. Is this the next big leap for crypto or just the latest bubble? In this episode, Marc Zeller of Aave Chan Initiative and Kain Warwick of Infinex discuss Ethereum’s future, the role of AI in DeFi, and whether Solana’s momentum will continue. They also share bold predictions for crypto in 2025 and debate whether Ethereum’s fragmented ecosystem can still deliver on its promise. Show highlights: 03:35 Why 2024 became a turning point for the crypto ecosystem 07:02 How AI agents could reshape onchain innovation and public discourse in 2025 14:47 Whether AI agents might soon compete with VCs 22:10 Why fundamentals-driven crypto projects will gradually dominate the market, according to Marc 26:05 Whether Solana will continue to steal Ethereum’s thunder 37:56 Is Base cannibalistic to Ethereum? Can Base or Ethereum compete with Solana? 42:53 Where the ETH ecosystem is headed and whether it can overcome issues of fragmentation, lack or interoperability, so many L2 tokens detracting from the ETH price 52:30 Whether Coinbase's deep commitment to Ethereum is causing it to discriminate against Solana 1:00:10 How Ethereum's reputation rises and falls with its price action, not its fundamentals, per Kain 1:08:43 What the purpose is of the Ethereum Foundation and whether it should change its approach 1:24:57 Why Kain doesn’t think the native rollups proposal is tenable 1:31:12 Whether Ethena is depressing the price of ETH 1:34:00 What Kain and Marc think about crypto-specific phones, especially the Solana Seeker 1:42:07 Kain’s and Marc’s predictions for 2025 Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Stellar Build Better Robinhood & Arbitrum Kelp DAO Polkadot Guests: Marc Zeller, founder of Aave Chan Initiative Kain Warwick, founder of Infinex Links Unchained: Why Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Is Betting Big on Crypto and Stablecoins Unchained: 2024 Was Solana's Best Year Yet. Can It Sustain the Momentum in 2025? Unchained: What's the Best Way for Ethereum to Grow? Two Ethereans Debate The Block: Long-running Ethereum newsletter shutting down, cites lack of funding Unchained: How Solana Beat Out Ethereum to Nab New Crypto Developers in 2024 Evan Van Ness’ tweet on the newsletter shutdown EF’s Josh Stark’s reply to Van Ness Unchained: Vitalik Has Gone 'Founder Mode.' Is This Just What Ethereum Needs? Marc’s proposal about the EF 0xMawuko’s tweet on ETH governance Unchained: Are Layer 2s Failing Ethereum? A New Proposal Advocates for Native L2s Ben Lilly’s tweet on Ethena possibly suppressing the price of ETH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think that we're going to see a proliferation of applications that are on chain that offer the same user experience and utility that we have from existing centralized platforms.
0:14.8	And I think it will be the year that we shift away from the majority of activity happens inside of centralized platforms.
0:22.5	The majority of crypto transactions happen on Binance, on Coinbase, etc.
0:26.5	And we shift out into the majority of transactions happen on-chain in open, on-chain platforms.
0:34.9	I think there's also a very high chance that 2025 will be the start of the market shift
0:42.3	toward a new bear market.
0:44.3	I hope it will be later in this year, but I think there's a very high chance.
0:48.3	We shift the market dynamic to something that is more flat or downturn during the year 2025. So it's
0:57.2	going to be a great year, but probably at some point of the year, we're going to change the paradigm
1:03.5	in terms of the actuality of the market.
1:10.2	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your No hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host,
1:15.1	Laura Shin. We are now featuring quotes from listeners on the show. Today we have one from
1:19.9	Lawrence Grigg on X, who responded to Shaw Walters' comments that universal basic income won't
1:25.6	work and that we need to build a technology to
1:28.0	enable a non-governmental form of UBI so people have time to do things that they really want
1:33.0	to do.
1:34.2	The examples he gave were things like focusing on family and pursuing creative passions.
1:40.3	Lawrence wrote, quote, I'm of a different opinion.
1:43.3	Once there's no need for money, most people will be doing nothing and be complaining about it. Drug and alcohol abuse will reach epic levels. Humans are imperfect creatures that need the struggle of everyday life for meaning. To have your comment featured, write a review of the podcast overall on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or leave a comment on the episode on YouTube or X.
2:04.5	This is the January 7th, 2025 episode of Unchained. Did you know the Stellar blockchain already powers over 550 million tokenized assets in 180 countries?
2:15.9	Join the Build BetterMovement at betteron.
2:18.5	Stellar.org.
	...

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