Ethereum co-founder Joseph Rubin claims that Ethereum’s future value will come from global adoption. $ETH It’s not about charging high transaction fees on the base tier.
The discussion began after ARK analyst Lorenzo Valente used Robinhood’s recently launched blockchain as an example to highlight how revenue will be distributed across Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem.
Robinhood keeps most of the revenue
Valente said Robinhood’s Layer 2 chain has generated about $816,000 in revenue since launch.
The current structure looks like this:
- Robinhood retains approximately 89% of the proceeds.
- Arbitrum, which provides Layer 2 infrastructure, receives approximately 10%.
- Ethereum only earns about $1,538, or about 0.15%, by settling these transactions on its main network.
Valente argued that this number reveals an important difference in Ethereum’s investment thesis. if $ETH is primarily seen as funds and collateral to secure the network, and more companies building Layer 2 is a positive development as Ethereum’s usage and demand will increase. $ETH.
However, if investors expect Ethereum itself to generate significant fee income, the current model seems much less attractive, as most of the economic value remains with layer 2 operators.
Valente suggested that Ethereum should capture a larger share of the network economy, proposing a model in which Ethereum would receive closer to 15 percent of the revenue instead of less than 1 percent.
Rubin: Low fees are a feature, not a problem.
Lubin disagreed with the idea that Ethereum should prioritize maximizing layer 1 fee revenue.
Instead, he argued, Ethereum should intentionally keep its base tier fees low to encourage adoption.
According to Rubin, the network is entering a stage in the next two to three years where tens of thousands of companies will be able to build applications and infrastructure across the Ethereum Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks and the private Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain.
Rather than focusing on extracting fees from every transaction, he believes Ethereum could benefit more by becoming the underlying payment layer of a much larger blockchain economy.
$ETH Demand may increase even if fees fall
Rubin believes that Ethereum’s long-term value will come from several factors working together. As more companies move on-chain, more organizations $ETH Operates within the Ethereum ecosystem.
He also predicts that staking will continue to lock up large amounts of money. $ETHthe supply of liquid available on the market decreases.
Combined with Ethereum’s token burning mechanism, which permanently removes a portion of transaction fees from circulation, these dynamics could be strengthened, Rubin argues. $ETHEven though Layer 1 prices remain relatively low, their scarcity will increase over time.
Ethereum’s biggest bet is global adoption
In response to a question about whether there are enough companies capable of launching their own blockchains, Rubin pointed to the broader global economy.
He said there are hundreds of millions of businesses around the world and argued that blockchain represents the next evolution of the internet.
Just as companies have gradually adopted websites over the past 20 years, Rubin believes companies of all sizes will eventually move parts of their operations on-chain.
In his view, Ethereum’s ecosystem, including its Layer 2 network and permissioned EVM chain, is best positioned to support that transition.
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