In 2025, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin symbolized the shift in Ethereum's value paradigm through the cartoon image of a "bull."

Written by: Oliver, Mars Finance

On June 19, 2025, when the soul of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, replaced the original oil barrel icon representing "digital oil" with a cartoon "bull" on social media, it was not a spontaneous doodle. This seemingly minor action resembled a carefully planned value declaration, a profound reshaping of the logic behind Ethereum's bull market. It suggests that today, as spot ETFs roll out the red carpet for Wall Street, Ethereum's narrative is transcending the somewhat outdated metaphor of "fuel for the digital world," evolving into a grander, more robust, and more complex value paradigm.

What Buterin shared and "edited" was a discussion on Ethereum's three core values—"digital oil," "store of value," and "global reserve asset." These three concepts have long been familiar melodies within the community, but when they were juxtaposed by this founder using a new visual language, their inherent tension and synergy emerged with unprecedented clarity. This "bull" is no longer a symbol of a single narrative but an economic behemoth forged by the combined strength of three pillars. This article aims to deeply deconstruct this emerging new paradigm and explore how the foundation of Ethereum's value has undergone profound and subtle changes as it moves toward becoming a mainstream asset.

From "Digital Oil" to "Economic Heart": Re-evaluating Value in the L2 Era

The narrative of Ethereum as "digital oil" is its earliest and most successful value positioning. This metaphor intuitively explains the fundamental use of ETH: as the fuel (Gas) that powers the world's largest smart contract platform. Every transfer, every DeFi interaction, and every NFT minting requires the consumption of ETH. This indispensable practicality has built a solid demand base for ETH. In the past, network congestion and high Gas fees were even seen as manifestations of network prosperity, directly linked to ETH's value capture.

However, entering 2025, this classic narrative faces a profound challenge brought about by Ethereum's own success. The Dencun upgrade in March 2024, particularly the implementation of EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding), fundamentally changed the game. By providing a dedicated and inexpensive data publishing channel (Blobs) for Layer 2 (L2) networks, Ethereum successfully "outsourced" a significant amount of transaction activity to scaling solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism. This is undoubtedly a tremendous technical victory, realizing the grand blueprint of allowing ordinary users to participate in the digital economy at a very low cost. But it also brought about a sharp economic paradox: as the vast majority of economic activities migrated to inexpensive L2s, the congestion level of the mainnet (L1) plummeted, directly leading to a crash in Gas fees and a sharp reduction in ETH burn rates.

According to data from Dune Analytics, since the Dencun upgrade, the average Gas price on Ethereum L1 has remained in the single digits of Gwei for an extended period, which was unimaginable in previous years. The reduction in fees means that the amount of ETH being burned through the EIP-1559 mechanism has also shrunk. This directly impacts the core logic of the "digital oil" narrative—namely, the positive correlation between network usage and value capture (deflation). If the consumption of "oil" is structurally decreasing, how should we assess its value?

This is precisely where the shift in value paradigm lies. The new cognitive framework posits that the value of ETH is no longer merely reflected in its consumption as fuel on L1, but has elevated to being the "economic heart" that ensures the security of the entire modular ecosystem. Ethereum L1 is transitioning from a congested "world computer" to a highly secure "global settlement and security layer." Its core mission is to provide finality and data availability guarantees for hundreds of L2s. L2s handle massive transaction volumes and then submit compressed "proofs" back to L1 for final confirmation.

In this new model, the value capture mechanism of ETH becomes more indirect, but potentially more robust. Its value no longer primarily derives from transaction friction but from the "rent" it earns as a security provider. Although the fees paid by individual L2s to L1 have decreased, the total "rent" scale remains substantial with the emergence of thousands of L2s in the future. More importantly, the security of the entire ecosystem relies entirely on the total value of ETH staked on L1. A modular ecosystem with trillions of dollars in economic activity must be protected by a security layer of equal or even greater magnitude. Therefore, the demand for ETH shifts from "transactional demand" to "security demand." It is no longer gasoline but the concrete that supports the entire interstate highway network (all L2s), with its value positively correlated to the total economic flow of the highway network (the TVL and activity of all L2s). This transformation liberates ETH's value from short-term fee fluctuations and anchors it to the long-term macro growth of the entire ecosystem.

The Rise of "Internet Bonds": When "Ultrasound" Falls Silent

If the narrative of "digital oil" is undergoing a profound self-evolution, then the story of "store of value" is almost being completely rewritten. Once upon a time, "Ultrasound Money" was the community's proud slogan. Under the dual impact of "The Merge," which significantly reduced new issuance, and the ongoing burning of fees through EIP-1559, ETH briefly entered a state of net deflation and was hailed as a more "sound" asset than Bitcoin. The continuously fluctuating negative inflation rate on the ultrasound.money website was the core belief of countless investors that ETH could surpass BTC.

However, the aforementioned L2 paradox has also cast a shadow over this beautiful deflation myth. The reduction in L1 fees has greatly diminished the power of the burning mechanism. Data shows that since the Dencun upgrade, ETH has returned to a slightly inflationary state during several periods. This has made the "Ultrasound Money" slogan somewhat awkward and forced the market to seek a more resilient value support.

Thus, the narrative of "The Internet Bond" emerged, quickly becoming a more attractive story for institutional investors. The core of this concept lies in the fact that through the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism, anyone holding ETH can participate in network validation through staking and thus earn stable returns denominated in ETH. By mid-2025, Ethereum's staking annual percentage rate (APR) has stabilized around 3%-4%. This yield does not arise from thin air; it comes from transaction fees (tip portion) paid by users and ETH rewards generated by the protocol, serving as reasonable compensation for validators maintaining network security.

This endogenous yield, priced in the protocol's native asset, makes ETH a productive capital asset. It is no longer just a static commodity waiting to appreciate but a yield-generating asset capable of continuously producing "cash flow" (albeit in ETH terms). For traditional financial investors accustomed to dividends and bond interest, this is an easily understandable and highly attractive model. Analysts at VanEck have pointed out that ETH's staking yield can be viewed as the "risk-free rate" of the digital world, and the yields of all DeFi protocols built on Ethereum can be priced based on this.

The narrative of "Internet Bonds" has become even stronger due to the boom of liquid staking tokens (LSTs). LSTs like Lido's stETH and Rocket Pool's rETH allow ordinary users to earn staking rewards while maintaining the liquidity of their assets. These LSTs have since been deeply integrated into every corner of DeFi as collateral and trading pairs, creating the so-called "LSTfi" ecosystem. This has formed a powerful value flywheel: ETH is heavily staked due to its yield-generating properties, thereby enhancing the network's security and decentralization; the resulting LSTs, in turn, become the cornerstone of the DeFi world, further increasing the demand for ETH as an underlying asset.

This shift in narrative is crucial. It transforms ETH's value proposition from a speculative story reliant on network congestion and scarcity expectations to an investment story based on actual economic activity and predictable returns. Even if the deflationary halo of "Ultrasound Money" fades, as long as the Ethereum ecosystem continues to thrive, its yield attributes as "Internet Bonds" will still exist. This provides ETH with a solid value foundation and leaves enormous imaginative space for future ETF products—an ETF that can directly distribute staking rewards to investors will undoubtedly become a nuclear weapon to ignite the next wave of institutional demand.

"Anchor of Trust": The Ultimate Settlement Layer of the Digital Economy

Regardless of how the metaphor of "oil" evolves or how enticing the yields of "bonds" may be, Ethereum's third and most solid value pillar lies in its position as the "anchor of trust" for the global digital economy. This role, as a "global reserve asset," is built on decentralization, security, and unparalleled network effects, making it the most trusted underlying settlement layer in the digital world.

First, in the DeFi world, which has reached hundreds of billions of dollars, ETH is the undisputed king of collateral. In core lending protocols like Aave and MakerDAO, ETH and its LST derivatives dominate the total collateral volume. A report from Galaxy Research points out that the market trusts ETH due to its deep liquidity, relatively low volatility (compared to other crypto assets), and time-tested security. Users confidently lend out billions of dollars in stablecoins because they believe the underlying ETH collateral is solid. This position as the "DeFi central bank reserve" creates enormous, sustained, and sticky demand for ETH.

Secondly, Ethereum is the center of the global stablecoin ecosystem. Although chains like Tron hold a share in USDT issuance, the vast majority of innovations and core stablecoins, such as USDC and DAI, ultimately settle their value on Ethereum. Ethereum supports over a hundred billion dollars in stablecoin market value, and these stablecoins constitute the lifeblood of the digital economy, while ETH serves as the vascular system ensuring the safe flow of this lifeblood.

More significantly, traditional financial giants are voting with their feet. When BlackRock chose to launch its first tokenized money market fund BUIDL on Ethereum, it was not the transaction speed or cost of Ethereum that attracted them. On the contrary, it was Ethereum's "diamond-like" trust and security that they valued. Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin once stated that Ethereum provides a trust "strong enough to withstand nation-state-level adversaries." This "Lindy effect," which has developed over more than a decade—where the longer something exists, the more likely it is to continue existing—represents a moat that no emerging public chain can replicate in the short term. As the wave of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization rises, Ethereum's position as the ultimate settlement layer for global value will become increasingly unshakeable, and its value as a reserve asset will be continuously solidified.

Conclusion: Forge the "Bull" Together, Not Alone

Now, let’s revisit the "bull" that Vitalik sent out. It no longer merely represents the hope of a bull market but is a clever summary of the sources of Ethereum's value. This bull is driven by three forces:

It has the strong pulse of the "economic heart": As the security cornerstone of the entire modular ecosystem, its value grows in sync with the total scale of an expanding digital economy. It possesses the robust yield of "Internet Bonds": The endogenous staking yield provides it with a solid value foundation and a clear valuation model, attracting long-term capital seeking stable returns. It carries the heavy weight of the "anchor of trust": As the ultimate collateral in DeFi and the settlement layer for global value, it embodies the most precious consensus and trust in the market.

These three pillars do not exist in isolation; they are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. The strong position of the "anchor of trust" attracts the prosperity of DeFi and RWA, driving the growth of the "economic heart"; while the yield-generating capability of the "Internet Bonds" incentivizes massive capital to be staked, providing an unbreakable security guarantee for the entire system.

The argument for Ethereum's bull market has bid farewell to an era that could be simply summarized by a single word (like "deflation"). It has become more mature, more diverse, and more resilient. It no longer relies on a single narrative but has constructed a value matrix with internally coherent logic that can withstand external shocks. For institutional investors accustomed to analyzing complex systems, this grand narrative filled with inherent tension and synergy may just be beginning to reveal its true charm. The bull that Vitalik has donned signifies the arrival of such an era.

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