Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced that the Ethereum Foundation will 'scale down' and reduce ETH sales, prioritizing 'long-term survival over size' as reported by PA Daily News. The foundation currently holds approximately 0.16% of ETH, significantly lower than other blockchain foundations which typically hold 10% to 50% of their own token supply. Buterin emphasized that the foundation will focus on Ethereum's CROPS attributes such as censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security, while explicitly opposing Ethereum's reliance on speed competition, calling it 'a path to mediocrity'. The foundation will concentrate on key activities it can uniquely drive, with some respected contributors and projects remaining outside the foundation to attract external capital.
Ethereum traded near $2,100 on May 26, according to crypto.news price data, with the cryptocurrency down 0.12% over 24 hours and 1.7% over seven days. The token's 24-hour trading volume stood at $9.72 billion while market capitalization reached $253.25 billion. Ethereum moved between $2,080 and $2,140 during the day, keeping it close to the wider $2,000 to $2,100 support zone that traders have watched since the latest pullback. Short-term indicators show weak momentum with the Awesome Oscillator negative at -153.30 and the Chaikin Money Flow slightly negative at -0.04, indicating sellers still control the current trend. The Ethereum Foundation's 30-day volatility index on Binance had fallen near 0.30, its lowest level since 2023, while Coinbase whales have formed a short-term sell wall near $2,400.
Private credit has emerged as one of the most active real-world asset categories in decentralized finance, with 64.3% of private credit's on-chain value now flowing through DeFi protocols. According to reports from AMBCrypto, investors are actively engaging with these assets rather than holding them passively. However, the concentration remains significant, with only 8 out of 53 private credit assets reaching meaningful composability across DeFi platforms. This means most assets still lack the ability to be widely usable across different DeFi protocols, indicating that while there is real demand, it remains concentrated in a small portion of the category.
The broader RWA perpetuals market has demonstrated significant scaling, with $821.8 billion in cumulative activity recorded as of May 2026, as reported by CoinMarketCap. The latest weekly activity reached $55.9 billion, showing sustained momentum in this segment. The market structure reveals that centralized exchanges handle 72% of the flow while decentralized exchanges account for 28%. Notably, DEX activity share has declined from 60% to 23%, yet absolute DEX volume still grew 5x over the same period. Commodities continue to dominate the flow at 82% of total activity, maintaining their position as the primary catalyst for RWA perpetuals growth.
Ethereum market sentiment has cooled significantly, with data from on-chain analytics platform Santiment showing that the ETH social media long/short ratio has rapidly fallen from over 2:1 at the end of April to nearly 1:1. Some traders have even begun referring to ETH as 'Dead Money'. Against the backdrop of continued ETF outflows and changes in Ethereum Foundation leadership, ETH is currently facing one of the most severe confidence tests in recent years. BitMine faces significant paper pressure with unrealized losses on its ETH holdings widening to approximately $7.35 billion as ETH has retreated more than 57% from its 2025 high. Analysts point out that ETH is currently approaching the lower edge of a bearish 'rising wedge' pattern, with potential further decline to the $1,600 area representing a 25% drop if support is broken.
