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A brief history of crypto memes
"A peer-to-peer electronic cash."
Satoshi chose this phrase to encapsulate Bitcoin, distilling a collection of distributed system advancements into a concise summary. The pitch was socially refined further, eventually emerging “digital gold”, a metaphor that more succinctly reflects the behavior surrounding Bitcoin’s usage. Bitcoin’s simplicity lends to the minimalism of its narratives: a scarce rock with no functionality. It’s like gold, but it’s digital. When describing Bitcoin, there isn’t even a need to differentiate between the asset and the protocol.
“A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform”.
Vitalik chose this phrase to embody Ethereum’s more ambitious objective and this fully loaded definition reflects it. Precious metal analogies won’t suffice. Using Ethereum requires an understanding of its two distinct components:
Ethereum is a world computer, a trust machine, a global, permissionless computer capable of making strong commitments and empowering radical markets.
ETH is ether, gas, a usable commodity like oil, a triple point asset, it’s programmable, ultrasound money.
Over the years, these expressions have borrowed from various analogies to capture the fundamental essence of Ethereum and ETH. Much like Vitalik’s original description, these phrases still require additional unpacking compared to Bitcoin’s “digital gold” meme.
Explaining our memes to a normie friend usually starts like this:
“Bitcoin is disinflationary, so if BTC is sound money, Ethereum’s often deflationary issuance makes ETH ultrasound money. You see, the fee burning mechanism introduced by EIP-1559...”
To the right audience, these are still powerful memetic devices. To the wrong audience, they are additional layers of complexity and mysticism. As a fellow ultrasound enjoyer, I recognize the 🦇 meme works for me, but not everyone.
Enter ETH is Money
The phrase “ETH is money” has existed in crypto Twitter’s lexicon for many years, but the phrase has seen increased usage over the last 6 months:
ETH is money.
The Ethereum economy with its tokens & defi & L2s will someday measure in the hundreds of trillions.
Across this vast economy there be only one asset with the deepest liquidity & settlement assurances - a censorship resistant store of value.
Money is ETH.
The Ethereum economy with its tokens & defi & L2s will someday measure in the hundreds of trillions.
Across this vast economy there be only one asset with the deepest liquidity & settlement assurances - a censorship resistant store of value.
Money is ETH.
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hope everyone is recovering post-DEVCON! it was a pleasure to present "ETH is permissionless money" and progressively build out the points in this diagram.
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video: youtube.com/watch?v=qdCUbO…
slides: github.com/michaelneuder/…
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video: youtube.com/watch?v=qdCUbO…
slides: github.com/michaelneuder/…
ETH is money. It’s simple, it’s concise. It communicates ETH’s value proposition in a single word: “money”. On its own, “ETH is money” does not articulate the full story, but it doesn’t need to. Additional nuance can easily be layered on top. “ETH is money” is inherently modular:
ETH is [___] money. Fill in the blank: Programmable, ICO, DeFi, NFT, Internet, AI, Web3, L2.
The simplicity of this format even leaves room for our more nuanced memes, like ETH is ultrasound money.
ETH is money is objective
“ETH is money” is an objective description of how it’s used today.
The Ethereum network settles about 1.3 million native transactions daily. ETH is money that pays for economic inclusion.
Layer 2 networks add an additional 19.7 million transactions per day. ETH is money that pays for economic security.
Since EIP-1559, three and a half years ago, ETH transfers are by far the largest single source of burn, more than every other exchange and asset. ETH is money, a global medium of exchange.
34 million ETH is staked today, earning interest in exchange for securing the network. ETH is money with native yield.
The current L1+L2 stablecoin market cap is $120 billion. ETH is money that moves other monies more efficiently.
Layer 2 networks export about 4.2 million ETH ($15.3 billion today) from the L1 to be used as a high-quality liquid asset. ETH is money with cross-ecosystem demand.
The Ethereum network locks $70 billion in DeFi across hundreds of assets and protocols, which is more valuable than all other blockchain networks combined. ETH is money in DeFi with the strongest network effects and access to liquidity.
ETH is money is required
ETH is money, because it has to be. Within the meme lies recognition that a blockchain's health is rooted in its asset's monetary premium. Network security is tied directly to the money-ness of its token. Bitcoin sheds half of its new monetary issuance, and therefore, half of its security budget every four years. To incentivize validators to secure the network while retaining its 21M supply cap, Bitcoin MUST eventually replace issuance rewards with orders of magnitude increases to demand, transaction fees, and market cap. It remains to be seen if this is even economically possible, but one thing is certain:
The future of Bitcoin depends on it being money.
Fortunately, Ethereum integrated these lessons into its monetary policy, achieving sustainability of its security budget and its monetary issuance. Ethereum pays far less for security and is still capable of ending the day with less circulating supply than it started. Ethereum can secure its cake and eat it too because ETH is money.
ETH is money is coordination
Finally, “ETH is money” is a Schelling point for coordination and community engagement. ETH is Money is the name of a new collective formulated at Devcon SEA ‘24. The goal is to champion, educate, and spread the ETH is Money meme.
Today, in the year 2025, the third largest crypto asset by market cap is ...Ripple. Opening Coingecko is a recurring reminder that this market is still wildly, dangerously uneducated.
ETH is Money is a set of live dashboards, metrics, and educational tools that clearly articulate ETH's money-ness. At a time when crypto Twitter is convinced that ETH needs a stronger memetic presence, ETH is Money emerges as a growing collective response.
the world if $ETH holders stepped up to do themselves what they say the EF should do.
Join the community calls, discord, and follow along.
The next time you’re explaining ETH to a normie friend, see if ETH is money is right for you. Try something like:
ETH is money for the Ethereum economy, the largest and most widely adopted internet-native economy. Like traditional money, ETH can be lent, borrowed, traded, invested, spent, and held while earning interest. Unlike traditional money (and Bitcoin), you can do these things without relying on any custodians or intermediaries. While Bitcoin originally set out to become a peer-to-peer electronic cash, ETH actually achieved it.
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