{"id":41071,"date":"2025-08-07T22:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=41071"},"modified":"2025-08-07T22:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:01:35","slug":"ethereum-l2s-drain-eth-centralize-control-galaxys-thorn-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=41071","title":{"rendered":"Ethereum L2s Drain ETH, Centralize Control: Galaxy\u2018s Thorn Warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Galaxy Digital\u2019s head of research Alex Thorn ignited a fresh debate over Ethereum\u2019s roll-up economy on Wednesday, accusing leading Layer-2 networks of siphoning value from the main chain while leaving ETH holders with \u201cpennies.\u201d In a widely shared thread<\/a> on X, Thorn argued that \u201cafter all these years, the ethereum community is apparently fine that most users are operating on centralized L2s controlled by single companies or foundations\u2026 very little value accrual back to ETH holders\u2026 sad!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethereum L2s: Centralized, Profitable And Bleeding ETH Dry<\/h2>\n

According to Thorn, roll-ups now earn between $100 000 and $400 000 in daily fees yet \u201chaven\u2019t spent more than 1\/1000 of a penny daily to buy blob objects since May,\u201d pushing less than $10,000 per day to Ethereum for data availability. He highlighted Base\u2014Coinbase\u2019s OP-Stack<\/a> roll-up\u2014as the most conspicuous example: over the past 180 days Base paid just $3.05 million to Ethereum L1 while sending $4.4 million to the Optimism Collective that licenses its code. \u201cBase is paying more daily to the Optimism Collective than all L2s combined (including Base) are paying to Ethereum L1,\u201d Thorn wrote, calling the margin \u201ca nice business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers grow starker in Coinbase<\/a>\u2019s own filings. Thorn noted that in Q2 2025 Base generated $14.9 million in user fees, spent only $443,000 on Ethereum data costs and $2.16 million on Optimism royalties\u2014just as the exchange disclosed a quarterly purchase of 2,509 BTC worth $247 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Coinbase siphoning value from Ethereum and using the proceeds to buy bitcoin?\u201d he asked, framing the decision as evidence that roll-ups can divert economic gravity away from ETH toward alternative assets. Coinbase\u2019s July 31 X post confirms the bitcoin accumulation: 11,776 BTC held at a $740 million cost basis, now valued at $1.26 billion.<\/p>\n

Buterin Highlights Technical Roadmap<\/h2>\n

While Thorn\u2019s critique centered on economics and governance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared<\/a> a technocratic roadmap focused on L2 user experience. Celebrating that \u201cso many major L2s are now at stage 1,\u201d Buterin argued that the next milestone must be sub-one-hour native withdrawals\u2014ultimately shrinking to a single slot\u2014enabled by validity (ZK) proofs<\/a> rather than optimistic schemes that require week-long challenge periods. \u201cWaiting a week to withdraw is far too long\u2026 This creates incentives to instead use solutions with unacceptable trust assumptions that undermine the whole point of having L2s,\u201d he wrote, urging builders to adopt hybrid proof systems (ZK + OP + TEE or variants) that deliver speed without sacrificing trustlessness.<\/p>\n

Buterin acknowledged that frequent ZK proofs remain costly\u2014single submissions today consume roughly 500,000 gas\u2014yet anticipated near-term aggregation of many roll-up proofs into one, uploaded \u201conce per slot,\u201d unlocking near-instant cross-L2 liquidity while keeping Ethereum the settlement and asset-issuance hub. In his view, technical convergence on validity proofs will erode the advantage of centralized multi-sig bridges that Thorn decries, restoring both security and economic alignment.<\/p>\n

For now the gulf between the two perspectives remains. Thorn views the status quo as extraction: centralized sequencers capture margins while remitting negligible fees to stakers, and governance remains anchored in corporate committees rather than permissionless validators. Buterin counters that the pathway to stronger alignment lies through cryptographic engineering that removes the week-long friction keeping capital parked in L2 coffers. Whether economics or engineering wins the argument may hinge on how quickly roll-ups can deploy cheap ZK systems\u2014 and whether users will wait for the upgrade or continue rewarding the most profitable sequencers in the meantime.<\/p>\n

At press time, ETH traded at $3,841.<\/p>\n

\"Ethereum<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galaxy Digital\u2019s head of research Alex Thorn ignited a fresh debate over Ethereum\u2019s roll-up economy on Wednesday, accusing leading Layer-2 networks of siphoning value from the main chain while leaving ETH holders with \u201cpennies.\u201d In a widely shared thread on X, Thorn argued that \u201cafter all these years, the ethereum community is apparently fine that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-41071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}