- Malekan highlights XRP’s FDV over Ethereum despite corporate control, citing crypto’s “immature” narrative-driven markets.
- DBA’s Charbonneau rejects claims Ethereum lacks fundamentals: “Outliers don’t erase need for core principles.”
Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, has challenged assumptions that Ethereum can mirror the market behavior of XRP, a cryptocurrency whose valuation often defies conventional analysis.
His comments follow a broader discussion sparked by Columbia Business School professor Omid Malekan, who criticized the tendency to attribute Ethereum’s price struggles to technical factors while overlooking sentiment-driven assets like XRP.
Malekan highlighted that XRP’s total potential value now exceeds Ethereum’s, despite half of XRP’s supply being controlled by a single company. He attributed this disparity to the cryptocurrency market’s reliance on narratives rather than measurable fundamentals.
Yakovenko agreed that irrational outcomes, such as XRP’s performance, do not guarantee similar results for other projects. “If you cannot explain why assets like XRP or Bitcoin hold value, you cannot replicate or challenge them,” he stated, suggesting Ethereum’s strategy must differ.
Just because something irrational happens in the world it doesn’t imply that it will also happen to you, or you can make it happen. If you can’t model why XRP or BTC have value, you can’t engineer it, and therefore you can’t compete with it. There is no second best, as they…
— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) April 26, 2025
Ethereum’s Fundamentals Defended
Jon Charbonneau, co-founder of crypto investment firm DBA, countered claims that Ethereum lacks foundational strength. “Exceptional cases like XRP do not erase the need for underlying principles,” he said, emphasizing Ethereum’s focus on decentralized applications and smart contracts. Yakovenko reiterated that Ethereum attempting to follow XRP’s path would likely fail, given differing structural goals.
Malekan described the cryptocurrency sector as immature, where prices often reflect speculative trends rather than utility. XRP’s rise, despite centralized supply controls, underscores this pattern. Yakovenko acknowledged the challenge of competing with assets driven by sentiment but stressed that long-term viability requires clear value propositions.
Ethereum’s price showed little reaction to the debate, maintaining stability amid broader market fluctuations. ETHNews analysts note that while narratives influence short-term moves, sustained relevance depends on balancing innovation with tangible use cases. For Ethereum, this means continuing to prioritize developer activity and network upgrades over speculative trends.
Solana (SOL) is currently trading at $151.84, with a +2.90% daily gain, continuing its recovery momentum. Over the last month, SOL has surged +21.97%, while remaining slightly up +0.46% over the past week.
Despite the short-term strength, it is still down -19.57% year-to-date and -8.51% over the last 6 months, which reflects a broader consolidation pattern after a highly volatile start to 2025. Year-on-year, SOL shows a +19.93% gain, with a long-term growth of +274.99% since inception.
From a technical perspective, Solana is nearing the critical $155–$160 resistance zone, which has acted as a historical rejection level. A clean breakout above this area could drive price action toward $175–$192, with bulls watching closely for confirmation.
However, failure to break $160 may result in a pullback to the $130–$120 support range, which would be a healthy retest within the current ascending channel structure. Indicators remain neutral-to-bullish, suggesting that the trend is intact but nearing overbought conditions.
Fundamentally, Solana is gaining significant attention from both developers and institutions. Its futures open interest has risen to $5.75 billion, nearing its peak, with demand for Solana derivatives now 50% higher than XRP. Furthermore, the Solana Policy Institute, along with Orca and Superstate, submitted a proposal to the SEC—called Project Open—which aims to bring equity securities on-chain using the Solana blockchain.
