Zcash co-founder and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson has issued a pragmatic defense of the Ethereum ecosystem, asserting that developers will not abandon the second-largest blockchain despite a prolonged industry crisis. Speaking amid a major identity crisis and record capital outflows from spot Ethereum ETFs, Ben-Sasson paraphrased Winston Churchill’s famous quote about democracy, stating, “Ethereum is shitty, its only advantage is that all the alternatives are far shittier.”
His remarks came as Ethereum’s price tested a local low of $2,020 in May, according to Binance data. The decline has been accompanied by capitulation among institutional investors, with net outflows from US spot Ethereum ETFs hitting a record $712.55 million over the past three weeks. Ben-Sasson, whose team works on scaling solutions including Starknet and Zcash, emphasized that the flight of speculative capital does not diminish Ethereum’s fundamental value as the irreplaceable base layer for decentralized finance.
The statement reflects a key consensus among core developers: despite grievances and an exodus of disappointed market veterans, Ethereum remains the only viable global standard for building the future of DeFi. Ben-Sasson’s confidence underscores the technology’s resilience beyond short‑term price movements and ETF flows.
