Vitalik Buterin Charts the Future of Ethereum as Peter Brandt Predicts a Collapse

Ethereum, the world's second largest blockchain, is facing increasing scrutiny and debate about its long term direction. On one hand, co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a fundamental redesign of Ethereum's execution layer, suggesting a shift to RISC-V instruction set architecture to address performance and scalability issues. On the other hand, veteran trader Peter Brandt has expressed skepticism about the short-term prospects of Ethereum, pointing out bearish technical signals and forecasting that the price could drop to 800 dollars. As the community considers ambitious technical reforms amidst a declining market sentiment, the future of Ethereum appears to be more competitive than ever. Vitalik Buterin proposed a complete transition to RISC-V for Ethereum, aiming to restore network efficiency and investor confidence. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has ignited a new debate in the blockchain development community with a bold proposal to reform the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the foundational execution engine for Ethereum smart contracts. In a post on April 20, Buterin proposed replacing the current bytecode system of the EVM with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA), in a move that he claims could increase the execution layer efficiency of Ethereum by up to 100 times. This proposal, put forward after months of careful consideration of the declining fee revenue and user base of Ethereum, aims at some longstanding bottlenecks in the network's scalability and competitiveness. Among them are stable available data patterns, competitiveness in block production, and efficient proof of non-knowledge creation — all of which are crucial for the long-term existence of Ethereum in the rapidly evolving blockchain landscape. Buterin wrote: "The efforts of the shard chain promise to significantly simplify the consensus layer of Ethereum." "But for the execution layer to achieve similar benefits, this kind of radical change may be the only viable path." RISC-V: The Execution Class Regeneration Path The RISC-V instruction set has gained popularity in recent years due to its flexibility, performance benefits, and open-source licensing. Originally developed for use in education and industry within hardware architecture, its application in the blockchain smart contract environment is unprecedented — and has the potential to be revolutionary. Buterin's argument focuses on the idea that Ethereum's old EVM is a significant limitation on performance, especially in the context of emerging blockchain systems like Solana and Sui that use more efficient virtual machine designs. Ethereum's modular approach — separating responsibilities between the base layer and layer 2 — has enabled scalability through sidechains and rollups, but has left the core execution engine relatively stagnant. Buterin claims that the move to RISC-V will allow Ethereum to support more complex and faster zero-knowledge (ZK) operations, which is critical to secure, scalable, and private computation. Buterin's proposal comes as Ethereum continues to face increasing pressure from faster single-block chains. Solana and Sui have both made headlines in recent months due to high transaction throughput and low-cost user experiences, supported by strong developer incentives and increasing dApp activity. Meanwhile, the base layer of Ethereum has experienced a concerning drop in revenue. Blob fees — transaction fees related to data from Ethereum's rollup-focused design — fell to a weekly low of 3.18 ETH at the end of March 2025, worth about $5,000 at that time. According to data from Etherscan and Token Terminal, the average network fee per transaction also dropped to just $0.16 in April, a level not seen since 2020. Brian Quinlivan, Director of Marketing at Santiment, believes that this decline is due to the reduction in user activity on the base layer as more users and developers are moving to layer 2 solutions. The weekly transaction fees of the Ethereum network have decreased significantly in Q1 2025 (Source: Token Terminal ) Double-edged sword: The cannibalism in layer 2 While layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base have significantly improved scalability and costs for end users, they have also been accused of reducing the revenue and usage of the Ethereum mainnet. These solutions charge fees off-chain or on separate execution environments, leading to a significant shift in where value is captured in the Ethereum ecosystem. The financial pressure that has arisen has contributed to the recent price difficulties of Ether. As of mid-April 2025, ETH is trading at around 1,637 dollars — much lower than the highs of 2021 and 2022. Some analysts warn that the price could drop to a low of 1,100 dollars if investor sentiment continues to deteriorate in the face of weak fundamentals and fierce competition. Buterin's vision for a RISC-V powered execution layer seems to be a direct response to this existing threat. By revitalizing the technical core of Ethereum, the network could reclaim its leading position not only as a pioneer in smart contracts but also as a sustainable and high-performance blockchain infrastructure. Buterin's latest move is not without controversy. Critics argue that such a comprehensive change could disrupt development tools and create further barriers to bringing new developers into the fold. Others question whether RISC-V, traditionally associated with hardware, is suitable for implementing smart contracts. However, supporters argue that Ethereum needs to take bold actions to survive in what some call the "great blockchain divergence" — a phase where high-performance chains gradually take market share away from older, slower networks. If implemented, this proposal could mark one of the biggest turning points in Ethereum's history since its launch. Whether the developer community and stakeholders in the Ethereum ecosystem will accept this radical redesign remains to be seen — but one thing is clear: the future of Ethereum may very well depend on its internal development will. Peter Brandt predicts that Ethereum will collapse to $800 as ETH battles negative technical factors and a split in sentiment. Veteran trader Peter L. Brandt, a commodities expert with nearly five decades of experience in the market, has shaken the Ethereum community with a bleak technical forecast. In a recent tweet featuring a descending triangle chart pattern, Brandt predicts that Ethereum (ETH) could collapse to a low of $800 — back to the bottom of the bear market in 2022. Brandt's latest post comes against the backdrop of increasing instability for the world's second largest cryptocurrency. ETH has fallen 46% over the past year and dropped 4% on Wednesday following the decision to maintain interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Although it has recovered somewhat, Brandt's chart still places ETH in a precarious position close to a prolonged downturn. The descending triangle pattern, which Brandt emphasizes in his chart, is a classic bearish technical pattern that often indicates a continuation of a downtrend. This market veteran is known for his uncompromising views on digital assets, and earlier this week, he went further by calling Ethereum "worthless junk" — a statement that sparked a fierce debate among cryptocurrency traders and Ethereum supporters. Divided market: Ethereum Bears vs. Bulls While Brandt's prediction reflects a broader disillusioned sentiment about Ethereum's recent performance, not everyone shares the same view. In a polarizing psychological turn, celebrity endorsers and cryptocurrency moguls have voiced optimism about ETH. NBA legend and cryptocurrency enthusiast Scottie Pippen has publicly predicted the onset of a major altcoin season, stemming from historical Bitcoin cycle patterns. According to Pippen, altcoin price surges tend to explode about 340 days after each Bitcoin halving event. The most recent halving event took place on April 20 of last year — a timing coincidence that has fueled speculation in the cryptocurrency space. Scottie Pippen announced that he is optimistic about ETH in the long term because he is building a project on this network. The project focuses on AI, gaming, and tokenizing real-world assets (RWA). In agreement with Pippen's viewpoint, Tron founder Justin Sun has reaffirmed his support for Ethereum. Despite the dismal price movements and increasing criticism, Sun stated that Tron has no intention of selling the ETH it holds. Instead, he emphasized future collaboration with Ethereum developers, expressing a desire for a more collaborative and integrated cryptocurrency ecosystem. Ethereum's struggles aren't just technical—they're systemic. The broader macroeconomic environment, weak institutional demand for ETH-based ETFs, and challenges to Ethereum's scalability have combined to dampen sentiment. When Brandt posted his chart, Ethereum was trading at $1,587 — close to the lower boundary of the recent trading range. The 4% drop following the Fed's announcement reflects the increasing sensitivity of investors to macroeconomic signals, particularly interest rates affecting the appeal of risk assets like cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, spot ETFs based on ETH, which were approved alongside Bitcoin ETFs last year, have not attracted similar capital flows. Data shows that Bitcoin ETFs consistently outperform Ethereum ETFs in terms of net capital flows and investor demand. This difference has added pressure on ETH, especially as there are still many questions about the revenue model, base layer revenues declining due to the shift to Layer 2, and the relatively slower development speed compared to emerging Layer 1 competitors like Solana and Sui. Scenario 800 dollars: Real risk or just an exception? Brandt's forecast of $800 will mark an astonishing drop of nearly 50% from the current level — a move that could shake investor confidence and create a ripple effect across decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and Web3 projects built on the Ethereum network. However, even some skeptics of Ethereum question the ability to retreat this deeply. The network remains the most widely used smart contract platform, with significant developer activity, interest from organizations, and long term infrastructure guidelines supporting its future. However, history has shown that when Brandt speaks up, the market tends to listen — if not to say react.