Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum project is struggling to deliver on its early promise

The gawky, playful founder of Ethereum — known for his rainbow-colored, animal-themed shirts — created the biggest competitor to Bitcoin

The founder of Ethereum is facing increasing pressure as the token price lags Bitcoin and its smaller competitors.

Vitalik Buterin, a coder who co-founded the cryptocurrency project in 2014, is viewed as one of the more even-keeled actors in the chaotic crypto industry. But after two turbulent years that saw Donald Trump intervene in the sector and launch his own memecoin, Buterin has become more agitated in public.

In recent months, he’s lashed out at critics who say he isn’t doing enough to help Ether regain ground on Bitcoin, arguing that his work is being misinterpreted and that he’s focused on more pressing matters.

“If you ‘keep the pressure on,’ then you are creating an environment that is actively toxic to top talent,” Buterin said in response to one complaint about the Ethereum Foundation, which was created to help oversee the development of the software that underpins the digital token. “YOU ARE MAKING MY JOB HARDER.”

The anger is a departure for Buterin, who is now 31, and it highlights the difficulties he’s facing as he tries to navigate the next chapter of Ethereum’s journey.

The project, which began as a tech startup founded by Buterin and a small group of colleagues, has blossomed into a sprawling global community of developers, traders and academics. Along the way, it has captured the imaginations of both corporate America and Wall Street.

But after threatening to revolutionize both the financial system and our everyday digital lives, Ethereum is struggling to deliver on its early promise as it enters its second decade.

The pressure on Buterin has spilled into the open as complaints about his leadership have become louder.

At the same time, the token on the network — Ether — has lagged both Bitcoin and its smaller competitors, slipping further in recent months as it faces increasing competition from new projects such as Solana, which is hosting many of the most popular memecoins.

Active developers working on Ethereum-related software fell about 17 percent last year, to 678, according to a December report by Electric Capital. By contrast, Solana was one of the top ecosystems for new developers in 2024, with 83 percent year-over-year growth.

Among the top 20 blockchains, Solana ranked fourth for active developers last year, while Ethereum was ninth.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered analysts slashed their year-end forecast for Ether by 60 percent in a report this month, saying its dominance has been waning for some time due to “something of an identity crisis.” They now expect Ether to reach $1,000 by the end of the year, down from a prior prediction of $2,500.

At the end of a conference in San Francisco this month, Buterin recognized the unrealized promises but pushed back against the people expecting swift change.

“The only thing that can move Ethereum forward at this point is things that give long term value in a way where you can clearly see that the value is coming from a thing that is actually sustainable — like actual use for people,” he said.

Buterin, who grew up in Russia and then Canada, wrote the Ethereum white paper in 2014, not long after dropping out of college, with the goal of improving on what he saw as the shortcomings of Bitcoin. He hoped to create what he referred to as a shared global computer outside the control of any company or government.

The ledger, or blockchain, underpinning Ethereum, was designed so that it could handle digital contracts and serve as the infrastructure for a host of decentralized digital applications. Investors bought into that vision and Ether skyrocketed during the crypto booms of 2017 and 2021, as developers built thousands of applications on top of the blockchain, ranging from silly cat games to more wonky prediction markets and lending programs.

Ethereum also drew a following because of Buterin’s idealistic, often gnomic pronouncements, and his methodical oversight of the software and network. While it was a hotbed for rampant speculation, Buterin himself showed little interest in material wealth and lived out of a backpack despite owning a stash of Ether tokens that has grown to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

His monkish identity has been less of a good fit in the new environment ushered in by the president. After Trump embraced crypto and pushed the government to begin holding tokens, the leaders of many projects rushed to donate and otherwise show support for Trump, with many attending the inauguration and posing for photos with the president.

Buterin, in contrast has kept a studied distance.

Just after the inauguration he said on social media that he had no interest in making some sort of “vibez pivot” to what he referred to as the “bronze aged mindset” — the hypermasculine philosophy that has become popular with both crypto enthusiasts and the Trump crowd.

The clash became most apparent after