Ethereum (ETH) Consolidates as Vitalik Shares Fresh Proposal

Ethereum price continued to consolidate above $1,820 over the weekend, outperforming BTC over the 14-day timeframe.

Ethereum (ETH) price continued its consolidation above $1,820 over the weekend, outperforming BTC over the 14-day timeframe.

According to CoinGecko, ETH price posted a 14-day gain of 15.7% while Bitcoin price (BTC) rally was subdued at 12% over the same period.

According to Benzinga, daily trading volumes for ETH remained elevated above $7 billion, reflecting robust market participation.

Investor sentiment appears bolstered by Vitalik Buterin’s latest technical commentary. The Ethereum founder posted on May 3 about the importance of protocol simplicity, stating, “One of the best things about Bitcoin is how simple it is … let’s bring those benefits to Ethereum.”

His suggestion alluded to streamlining Ethereum’s design, a move that may aim to address criticisms around execution layer complexity, state management, and overall maintainability.

This comes amid a broader industry push for modularity, security, and composability. Ethereum’s resilience over the weekend and its outperformance signal that Buterin’s remarks may have struck a positive tone with short-term traders.

Bitcoin Maxis Mock Vitalik’s Latest Network Update

Buterin’s remarks triggered swift criticism from prominent Bitcoin maximalists. Alistair Milne quipped that Bitcoiners have been urging Vitalik to embrace simplicity “for a decade.”

Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream and a legendary cypherpunk, delivered the most scathing critism.

“I literally told him so a decade ago, but they still haven’t learned about balance vs utxo or the complexity of state, ‘rich state fullness’ mistake. Redirecting miner revenue to the insiders with PoS etc. At this point just flush it before it hits 0, and buy Bitcoin.” – Adam Back, May 4 2025.

Back blamed Ethereum’s complexity — especially the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — for the recent ByBit wallet hack.

According to him, the EVM’s design makes it “basically impossible” for hardware wallets to verify transaction details reliably, creating exploitable vectors in real-world deployments.

From this lens, Ethereum’s initial ambition to support smart contracts without first building a minimal, robust foundation is seen as a strategic misstep.

The ensuing comments on X has further re-hased the long-standing ideological divide between Bitcoin maximalists, and Ethereum advocates over the last 24 hours.

What’s Ahead?

While Bitcoin maximalists dismiss Vitalik’s call for simplicity as a desperate pivot, Ethereum markets responded differently.

With ETH showing strength and price stability above $1,820, buyers appear to interpret the proposal as a sign of Ethereum’s maturity possibly moving toward more efficient fundamentals.

Despite criticisms from Bitcoin maxis like Adam Back, Ethereum price has evidently attracted buying more buying pressure that BTC over since Vitalik’s proposal on Saturday.