Ethereum co-founder and MetaMask CEO Joseph Lubin expects demand for ETH to outstrip supply as financial institutions move onto Ethereum. At the same time, Lubin admits the network has yet to see real mainstream usage.
The remarks came in a debate on X with Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at crypto fund Arca, who questioned whether ETH bulls can explain the token’s value.
Lubin Sees Ethereum Demand Outpacing Supply
Lubin replied that Dorman was “working with a snapshot of the current state” and ignoring what he sees as the inevitable trajectory.
Financial institutions and the market infrastructure behind them are already on Ethereum, and more are coming, Lubin wrote. Consensys is working with some of them, he added. The software firm recently spun off MetaMask as a separate company.
According to Lubin, several forces will tighten supply. Users will compete for high-value block space, while staking locks up more ETH. Digital asset treasuries will also keep buying, much like BitMine in its push toward 5% of all ether. Moreover, higher network activity burns more ETH.
The Ethereum co-founder calls these mechanics the monetary premium of ETH.
“In perhaps 2 years no platform will have anywhere close to the monetary premium of ETH,” Joseph Lubin said.
So far, the market tells a different story. ETH has lost more than a third of its value over the past year and trades at less than half its all-time high from August 2025.
However, some traders read the chart differently. One trader shared a comparison showing that ETH fell about 26% in both mid-2025 and its current pullback. In 2025, that drop came just before a sharp rally. The trader now expects another one.
A Decade In, Mainstream Users Are Still Missing
In a separate post, Lubin conceded that crypto still lacks compelling applications for the mainstream. Most people buy ETH and Bitcoin to hold them speculatively, he says.
Still, Lubin credits SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig with clearing much of the regulatory uncertainty. As MetaMask CEO, he also points to the wallet he runs, which is evolving into a self-custody financial super app.
Dorman remains unconvinced. Ten years into the experiment, the best theses for owning a layer-1 token are still “a bunch of gobbledygook rationales,” he argued.
Lubin has made bullish Ethereum calls before. He also backs Ethlabs, a nonprofit preparing Ethereum for institutional adoption. In October, he said the crypto winter had ended quite a while ago. Since then, however, ETH has fallen further.
Source: BeInCrypto