Ethereum Knocked Off Its Throne? The Blockchain Power Struggle Gets Spicy 🍿

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In the dying golden afternoon, the blockchains sat like grizzled farmers on their porches, and Ethereum—once king, once titan—felt the dust settle on its shoulders. Alex Svanevik, boss of Nansen and a man whose eyes have seen too many charts, leaned forward at the LONGITUDE panel and declared with something between regret and amusement, “If you’d asked me three or four years ago whether Ethereum would lord over crypto, I’d have said yes.” He didn’t say it quietly; he said it with a kind of “gotcha” grin that belongs to a man who has watched many empires fall apart, one smart contract at a time.

Gone are those heady days where Ethereum juggled 96% of all the crypto eggs in one, rather pricey, basket. Now it clings to just a modest 51%—still more than half, but no longer the banquet it used to be. That’s about $52 billion, if you’re counting the nickels. The numbers come from DefiLlama, which, let’s be honest, sounds like an animal you wouldn’t want counting your money, but here we are.

Svanevik, waxing poetic between swigs of blockchain Kool-Aid, painted the picture: “It’s an open race now. Any chain with two legs and a whitepaper can call itself a contender. We’ve got five or six chains charging at the finish line like a wild bunch of over-ambitious cattle.” If you listen closely, you can almost hear the smart contracts snorting and pawing at the ground.

Meanwhile, CryptoMoon’s LONGITUDE event, where this whole soap opera unfolded, was less of a shootout and more of a farmer’s market for blockchain dreamers. People came to trade big ideas, pitch their new “revolutionary” networks, and show off badges that looked suspiciously homemade.

Rise of Solana

Solana, brash and speedy, wearing the kind of grin you only get from lower fees and wild transaction speeds, seems to be the kid everyone’s betting on. “Solana has overtaken Ethereum on the ‘let’s impress the in-laws’ metrics—active addresses, transaction volume, gas fees… take your pick,” Svanevik declared. Ethereum is still top dog in Total Value Locked (TVL) and has a pretty tight grip on stablecoins, but Solana is the new darling at the dance.

Out on the blockchain prairie, a gang of smaller networks are hoping for their own taste of fame, but as Vardan Khachatryan of Fastex pointed out with less than a twinkle in his eye, “Chains aren’t sticking because they’re useful; they’re sticking because of hype, shiny coins, airdrops, and whatever’s trending this bull run.” He didn’t say it with bitterness, but with the sort of resignation one has after watching a dozen ICOs come and go—like tumbleweeds through the burnt-out bar of crypto dreams.

So, the chase goes on. Maybe Ethereum gets its mojo back. Maybe Solana wears the crown next, or maybe we’ll all be huddled around a new campfire listening to stories about yet another chain and its magic beans. Either way, someone’s holding the popcorn. 🍿🤠

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2025-05-03 00:02