Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

Under the shadow of a series of negative news such as the continuous departure of core figures from the foundation and multiple institutions dumping ETH, the Ethereum ecosystem has once again received sensational news.

Today, David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, confirmed on the X platform that he has sold all of his ETH holdings, while news of mass layoffs at Bankless and the split of its two founders emerged.

In response, well-known KOL Chen Jian provided a vivid metaphor - "David, the founder of Bankless, sold all his held ETH, which is similar to Huang Changye's defection to North Korea back in the day." This statement's impact is enough to chill the spine of anyone who understands Bankless's status in the Ethereum ecosystem.

However, in the context of the growing mainstream and institutional acceptance of the crypto industry, as well as the fundamental shift in narrative power regarding Ethereum, the retreat of Bankless is actually understandable and may not necessarily be bad news for Ethereum.

1. Bankless: Once the "Propaganda Department" of Ethereum

Before delving into this seismic event, it is essential to understand what Bankless truly represents in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Bankless is much more than just a crypto media platform. It initially began as a podcast and a Substack subscription channel, with a simple core idea: to replace traditional banking with self-custody, DeFi, and Ethereum as the settlement layer of a new financial system.

The two co-founders David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams strongly advocated that Ethereum is “an extremely reliable currency.” They built a media brand around Ethereum, maximizing its exposure, and became two of the loudest supporters of Ethereum in the industry. Today, Bankless is recognized as one of the most influential media brands in the crypto world, especially within the Ethereum ecosystem.

David Hoffman is particularly known for his steadfast personal beliefs. During the bear market in 2018, when the price of Ethereum dropped to $300, he actively bought Ethereum, which made him a symbol of Ethereum extremism in the crypto Twitter community.

Bankless's unique position lies in its role as not just a “reporter” of the Ethereum ecosystem but also as a co-builder of the Ethereum narrative itself.

“Ethereum is ultrasound money,” “Ethereum will launch the industrial revolution of the internet,” “Ethereum is digital oil”... a series of his viewpoints has spread widely in the crypto industry, injecting an endless stream of belief and fuel into the Ethereum ecosystem.

From dialogues with Vitalik Buterin to in-depth analyses of Ethereum's roadmap, to continually providing theoretical frameworks for new narratives such as L2, DeFi, and re-staking, Bankless has long assumed the dual role of being the “information hub” and “spiritual lighthouse” of the Ethereum community. The two co-founders have also long acted as core evangelists for Ethereum - Hoffman himself has publicly stated that 99% of his personal fortune is held in Ethereum.

Chen Jian likened Bankless to the “party newspaper” of Ethereum - the accuracy of this metaphor lies in revealing that Bankless's role has already surpassed that of an ordinary commercial media outlet, acting instead as a value-outputting machine with a certain “quasi-official” or “semi-official” status within the ecosystem.

However, over the past year or so, Bankless's narrative power within the Ethereum ecosystem has clearly weakened, making it rare to propose distinctive viewpoints that possess high dissemination and unique perspectives.

2. What Exactly Happened

Earlier today, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman announced that he has sold all of his held ETH. Another co-founder, Ryan Sean Adams, later retweeted that the first phase of Bankless has ended, and his collaboration with David over the past six years exploring crypto, DeFi, and Ethereum has come to a close, now entering the second phase, where he will shift to a supportive role to continue assisting Bankless.

Soon, Lucas Campbell, co-founder of FireEyes DAO and former Bankless research analyst, further revealed on X that Bankless had apparently laid off most of the team yesterday, and the founders provided no words of gratitude or public statements to assist team members in finding new homes.

Bankless's business development director Jean-Paul Faraj posted on X reviewing his experience during his time at Bankless, stating that today is his last day working at Bankless, which corroborated the accuracy of the mass layoff news.

This series of messages conveys at least two clear signals: first, co-founder David Hoffman is no longer a staunch ETH bull; second, Bankless is unlikely to maintain the existing content output frequency and intensity after the mass layoffs, marking the end of its position as the "propaganda department" of Ethereum.

There were already signs leading up to this. Just a day ago, Ryan Sean Adams posted criticism of the Ethereum Foundation, stating, “The future of Ethereum can no longer depend on the Ethereum Foundation (EF). While EF is indeed important, Ethereum needs new institutions to step in and fill the gap. We need an organization that genuinely wishes for Ethereum assets (ETH) to win - to grow in numbers - and that dares to speak out and execute effectively. EF is not that organization, and it never will be.”

Additionally, David Hoffman also publicly stated in a podcast this month that he had sold his long-held, highly symbolic CryptoPunk and had mainly exchanged the proceeds for Zcash (ZEC).

3. The End of a Mission Phase

In Ryan Sean Adams's response, there is a remark worth pondering: the first phase mission of Bankless has ended, and it is now moving towards the second phase. So, what was the specific mission of Bankless's first phase? What will the next mission be?

As mentioned earlier, Bankless previously acted largely as the semi-official “propaganda department” of Ethereum, continuously conveying the specific roles and ideas of new technologies like Layer 2 to the crypto community, replenishing faith in the market.

At the early stage of Ethereum transitioning from a “geek toy” to a “crypto world computer,” such high-density, high-belief content output was essential — it helped Ethereum unite the most loyal community amidst the siege of countless public chains and supported the initial narrative premium of ETH.

But the problem is, this phased mission has essentially been completed.

Over the past year or two, the purely narrative-driven approach within the crypto industry has clearly weakened, with growth in adoption increasingly relying on integration with traditional financial systems, especially in the payment and RWA (real-world asset) sectors. Ethereum no longer needs to convince people “not to trust banks” through a few passionate articles but rather needs mainstream banks, asset management companies, and listed companies to treat Ethereum as infrastructure.

With the shift in target audiences, the baton of narrative has quietly changed hands.

Asset management firms like Bitwise, VanEck, and BlackRock, through ETF products, research reports, and public statements, have begun conveying the value proposition of ETH to the traditional financial world. Although MicroStrategy focuses on Bitcoin, its pioneering model of “listed companies buying crypto assets” has been emulated by other companies, with some listed companies already starting to include ETH on their balance sheets. Figures with traditional financial backgrounds like Tom Lee and Larry Fink have become new faces explaining Ethereum's ideas to the mainstream world. Their language is more compliant, professional, and easier for traditional capital to accept.

The role of Bankless is being replaced by a more decentralized, specialized, and diversified "narrative network."

For a long time, Ethereum’s “moat” was not technological superiority or user scale, but rather a complete value narrative system woven together by Vitalik, the Ethereum Foundation, core developers, and media evangelists like Bankless. Technology can be imitated, ecosystems can be replicated, but this belief community established since 2015 is almost irreplaceable.

Now, while Bankless is fading, its role is not in a vacuum; there is a large group of new forces that align more closely with the current stage of Ethereum’s development naturally taking over, including various institutional research departments, mainstream entrepreneurs, on-chain data platforms, and so on.

From this perspective, Bankless's retreat is not a crisis; rather, it is an inevitable result of the Ethereum narrative system maturing and decentralizing. A healthy ecosystem should not long rely on a "semi-official" media to maintain faith. As Ethereum enters the view of the mainstream financial world, when ETF fund flows can influence market sentiment more than any podcast, the historical mission of the “propaganda department” has already been completed.

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