‘Incompetent Dictatorship’ – Ethereum Civil War Intensifies After Cyber Capital Founder Blasts Vitalik Buterin’s ETH Vision

• Ethereum fell more than 2% in the last 24 hours and slipped below the $2,100 support range after spot ETH ETFs logged 11 consecutive days of net outflows.
• Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons hit out agains the Ethereum Foundation, blaming strategic decisions and governance issues for ETH’s prolonged underperformance.
• His comments come after Vitalik Buterin defended Ethereum’s long-term roadmap, stating the network should prioritize decentralization, privacy, and resilience over pure speed.

Ethereum (ETH) was sliding towards $2,000 on Wednesday morning, leading the cryptocurrency market selloff, after spot ETH exchange-traded funds recorded 11 consecutive days of net outflows.

According to the founder and chief investment officer of Cyber Capital, Justin Bons, Ethereum’s price has been falling “for years,” and it’s because the Ethereum Foundation has made “one disastrous decision after another.”

“From the failed ‘L2 scaling’ roadmap to now openly stating ETH will not compete on speed,” he wrote in a post on X. “ETH will continue to lose as it is run by an incompetent dictatorship; the result is mediocracy!” 

Ethereum’s price fell over 2% in the last 24 hours to around $2,070, having broken below the $2,100 floor that had held for three consecutive weeks. According to market watchers, this could open the path toward Ethereum falling to $1,900 or even lower. Crypto analyst Ted Pillows stated in a post on X that for Ethereum’s price to gain, Bitcoin (BTC) would have to hold above $75,000.

Ethereum Foundation Strategy Faces Fresh Criticism

Bons' criticism comes after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, earlier this week, defended the Ethereum Foundation's ongoing restructuring. Buterin warned against turning Ethereum into a network focused solely on transaction speed and scalability. "Being as fast and as scalable as possible, and only a small epsilon more decentralized than the others, is a route to mediocrity, and if we try it we will lose,” he wrote on X. 

Instead, Buterin said the Foundation would pursue "longevity over breadth," reduce ETH sales, and focus narrowly on the censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security (CROPS) dimension.

The institutional backdrop has been weakening as well. At least eight senior Ethereum Foundation contributors have left or announced plans to do so in 2026, including five in May alone.

Ethereum ETF Outflows Add Pressure

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs posted 11 straight trading days of net outflows from May 11 to May 26, totaling over $506 million, according to SoSoValue data. The streak threatens to erase April’s recovery, when ETH ETFs briefly snapped a five-month run of withdrawals with $355.98 million in monthly inflows. Prior to that rebound, Ethereum funds had lost nearly $2.8 billion over five straight months.

Ethereum’s price has now declined for six consecutive weeks, while Bitcoin has closed lower in only three of those same weeks, highlighting Ethereum’s widening relative weakness.

Bitcoin’s price dipped 1.9% in the last 24 hours to around $75,600, down from an intraday high of over $77,800. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw retail sentiment trending in the ‘bearish’ territory on Stocktwits over the past day. 

However, retail chatter around Bitcoin remained at ‘normal’ levels, while message volumes around Ethereum were at ‘high’ levels. The leading altcoin was among the top trending cryptocurrency tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing. 

Read also: Crypto ‘Extreme Fear’ Returns With Bitcoin At $75K – Retail Traders Say BTC Bulls Missed The Tech Rally

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