Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin has made a strong case that the network’s future value will be driven by widespread adoption and demand for ETH, not by maximizing transaction fees on the base layer. His comments were a response to an analysis by ARK Invest analyst Lorenzo Valente, who used the recently launched Robinhood Layer-2 chain to examine how revenue is distributed across Ethereum’s scaling ecosystem.
Valente highlighted that Robinhood’s L2 has generated approximately $816,000 in revenue since launch, with 89% of that amount retained by Robinhood itself. The remainder flows to the underlying L2 infrastructure, with Ethereum capturing only a tiny fraction. Valente argued that this model presents a contradiction in Ethereum’s investment thesis: if ETH is seen as money and collateral that secures the network, then more companies building L2s is positive because it increases ETH usage and demand. However, if investors expect Ethereum to generate significant fee revenue, the current structure is far less attractive. He proposed that Ethereum should capture around 15% of such revenue, though he did not detail how that could be achieved without harming L2 growth.
Lubin firmly disagreed with the notion that Ethereum should chase higher Layer-1 fees. Instead, he emphasized that low base-layer fees are a feature, not a problem, and that they are essential to attract tens of thousands of businesses building on Ethereum L1, L2s, and private EVM chains over the next two to three years. He compared blockchain adoption to the gradual uptake of websites in the early internet era, predicting that companies of all sizes will move operations on-chain.
According to Lubin, Ethereum’s value will stem from a combination of increasing ETH demand from businesses and users, the staking mechanism that locks up supply, and the ongoing token-burning (EIP-1559) that permanently removes ETH from circulation. Together, these factors could strengthen ETH’s scarcity even if base-layer fees remain low. His vision positions Ethereum as the foundational settlement layer for a much larger global blockchain economy, rather than a fee-extracting protocol.
