According to @QCompounding, nearly a decade after its launch, Ethereum (ETH) has failed to produce large-scale decentralized applications (DApps) due to fundamental scalability and economic constraints. The analysis highlights that Ethereum's throughput of approximately 14 transactions per second is insufficient for mainstream applications, and high fees render business models for low-value transactions unviable, a challenge even faced by profitable platforms like OpenSea. This technological shortfall is compounded by an ideological crisis, as the author argues that the crypto industry is drifting from its cypherpunk roots. Major companies like Coinbase are criticized for aligning with political power structures, which is seen as a betrayal of the core principle of decentralization. While zero-knowledge proofs are presented as a potential future solution for scalability, the current market shows ETH/BTC trading down 0.698%, suggesting Ethereum's relative underperformance against Bitcoin (BTC) amidst these ongoing fundamental challenges.

According to @OnchainDataNerd, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is undergoing a significant transformation, with the total value locked (TVL) in top lending protocols like Aave and Morpho surging 60% over the past year to approach $60 billion. This growth is reportedly driven by increasing institutional participation and the integration of DeFi as a backend financial layer for user-facing apps, a trend dubbed the "DeFi mullet." For instance, the Coinbase integration with DeFi lender Morpho has already originated over $300 million in Bitcoin (BTC) backed loans. The report also highlights the rise of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and on-chain asset managers, whose capital under management has quadrupled from $1 billion to over $4 billion since January. In contrast, despite nearly a decade since its launch, Ethereum (ETH) has failed to host large-scale consumer DApps due to critical scalability and economic barriers. The network's low throughput of about 14 transactions per second makes it unsuitable for mainstream applications. However, emerging technologies like zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs are presented as a potential long-term solution to enable the massive scale required for Web3's original vision.