Ethereum May Have Found Its “Google Search” Moment, Says Vitalik
TL;DR Breakdown
- Vitalik Buterin says low-risk DeFi could be Ethereum’s killer app.
- ETH has surged 103% in 90 days to $4,495, far outpacing BTC’s 15% rise.
- Buterin argues low-risk DeFi can unite financial sustainability with Ethereum’s ideals, unlike NFTs or memecoins.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes the network may have finally found its killer app. In a new post, Buterin argued that low-risk decentralized finance could play the same role for Ethereum that search did for Google. This includes providing global, democratized access to payments and savings in stable assets.
The biggest altcoin has had a good run lately, where it outperformed Bitcoin and gave strength to other major cryptos. ETH price has jumped by 103% over the past 90 days, while BTC managed to grow by around 15%. Ether is trading at an average price of $4,495 at the press time.
For years, Ethereum has wrestled with a tension around revenue-generating use cases like NFTs, memecoins and more. However, yield-chasing DeFi often sustained the ecosystem financially but did little to advance its founding ideals. Meanwhile, socially impactful applications such as Farcaster, Lens, ENS, privacy protocols, or prediction markets like Polymarket had captured imagination but rarely produced enough economic activity to support Ethereum’s $500 billion economy, wrote Buterin.
That mismatch, Buterin noted, left the community hoping for a use case that could combine both sides. This was sustaining ETH’s value while aligning with Ethereum’s broader mission. He now sees low-risk DeFi as that bridge. By offering users access to stable payments, interest-bearing currencies, and tokenized stocks or bonds, Ethereum could become a foundation for global financial inclusion.
Vitalik Says Safer DeFi Could Anchor Ethereum
Buterin compared the model to Google’s business. He highlighted that while Google produces many experimental projects from AI models to Pixel phones, its true economic engine remains search and ads. Ethereum, he suggested, could follow a similar path, with low-risk DeFi driving sustainable revenue while leaving room for experimentation and cultural growth in other areas.
The key difference, he stressed, is Ethereum’s design. Unlike Google, which critics say has become another profit-maximizing giant, Ethereum’s decentralized foundations make it better positioned to align “doing well” with “being good.” Low-risk DeFi, Buterin argued, offers that alignment in a way that speculative trading never could.
Earlier, Buterin had also defended the network’s 45-day staking exit queue. He argued that the delay is essential for security and validator commitment. Comparing staking to military service, he said friction prevents sudden exits that could destabilize the blockchain.
With 1 million validators and 35.6 million ETH staked, confidence in proof-of-stake remains strong. Still, critics highlight Solana’s two-day unstaking as a more flexible option for institutions. Solana is turning out to be a major competition for Ether. Sol price has spiked by 84% over the past 90 days backed by massive announcements. Solana is trading at an average price of $240.22 at the press time.
