Hoffman Liquidates All Holdings, Tom Lee Becomes "Staunch E-Bodyguard," Ethereum Faces "Midlife Crisis"

May 21: This could be a real dilemma for Ethereum (ETH) diehard holders. David Hoffman—co-founder of Bankless and a long-time Ethereum ecosystem advocate who’s lived through two full bull-bear cycles—just announced he’s liquidated his entire ETH holdings. Meanwhile, unlike counter-trend gains from coins like HYPE and ZEC, ETH’s still stuck treading water: it’s not rallying with the broader bull market, and instead crashing sharply during this bear run. To add fuel to the fire, multiple long-time ETH OGs have liquidated all their holdings this cycle. The Ethereum community’s also been split over governance models and development priorities, while the Ethereum Foundation keeps selling off assets—none of the funds it’s allocated have yet spawned any standout projects. This 11-year-old ETH is clearly facing a "midlife crisis." Amid this wave of so-called "betrayal and alienation," there’s a bright spot: Tom Lee and his "buddy" are turning out to be the market’s last standing, most loyal ETH maxis. Over at his firm Bitmine, Tom Lee has been steadily scooping up massive amounts of ETH, chipping away at his goal of amassing 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. Despite repeatedly showing unwavering determination to hold long-term, his current holdings sit on $7.2 billion in unrealized losses—a stat pretty unheard of in financial history. His buddy, meanwhile, has weathered dozens of contract liquidations, yet he’s still doubling down on ETH longs. During tonight’s price dip, he kept adding to his position. As of press time, ETH is the only long position left in his portfolio, holding a $10.92 million ETH long with a liquidation price of $2077. BlockBeats notes that ETH’s biggest current problem is insufficient "value capture." Even though the L2 ecosystem is booming, and stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) growth is strong, low Layer 1 fees paired with constant sell pressure from the Ethereum Foundation are keeping ETH’s deflation mechanism from working properly. Whether ETH can bounce back via the upcoming Pectra upgrade, wider institutional adoption (like stablecoin tokenization), and AI + blockchain integration will determine if it can overcome its "midlife crisis."