Vitalik Buterin says Ether should be valued as a store of value

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Ether should be viewed primarily as a store of value rather than a token whose value depends on transaction fee burning. He argued that the latter approach was given too much importance during the previous market cycle.

In a post on X on Sunday, Buterin said the store-of-value argument made more sense to focus on than the idea of Ether as a fee-burning asset. He backed keeping EIP-1559, the 2021 upgrade that burns part of each transaction fee, but said investors should not be concerned if the amount burned remains below 10% of the level needed to offset new ETH issuance.

Buterin said Ether’s value comes from other aspects of the network. He pointed to Ethereum’s decentralisation, censorship resistance, privacy and security, as well as its stability as a financial platform. He added that stability would become increasingly important as artificial intelligence reshapes the economy.