Report Questions Ethereum’s Leadership And Vision

What if technology is no longer enough ? Despite its technical lead, Ethereum falters, not on its foundations, but on its narrative. This is the troubling finding of the “Project Mirror”, a study commissioned by the Ethereum Foundation, which reveals a deep unease: without a clear vision or a mobilizing narrative, the network loses momentum, attractiveness, and coherence. Behind the promises of Web3, a perception crisis is settling in.

An ecosystem losing its narrative bearings

The study “Project Mirror”, conducted between March and June, set out to capture the perception of the Ethereum ecosystem at one of its most critical moments, as the crypto just regained the top spot in USDT.

According to the Ethereum Foundation’s own words, the goal was to “understand how different audiences perceive Ethereum, identify challenges and strengths, and feed that back to the ecosystem so we can learn from it.”

0/ Earlier this year the EF commissioned Project Mirror: a deep dive into perceptions of Ethereum.

The goal was to understand how different audiences view Ethereum, identifying challenges and strengths, and reflect those back to the ecosystem so that we can learn from them.

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) September 29, 2025

Conducted by Valeria Salazar and Jill Gunter, the study relied on 60 qualitative interviews covering the entire community, in a difficult market context, with ETH fluctuating between $1,600 and $2,500 and hitting a three-year low in April.

The conclusions of the report reveal five major tensions weakening the perception of the Ethereum network. These weaknesses do not stem from technology, but from how the ecosystem tells its story, or fails to tell it. Here are the report’s main findings :

• An absent or overly complex narrative : the researchers state that “without price dynamics or a simple narrative, Ethereum’s sophisticated vision appears brilliant but unreadable.” ;

• An ambiguous role of Ethereum layer 1 : as Layer 2s absorb users and activity, Ethereum’s fundamental role becomes unclear ;

• Insufficient institutional communication : the project lacks a clear and coherent message capable of uniting developers and users around a shared vision ;

• A challenge in reconciling neutrality and leadership : the desire to remain neutral sometimes prevents the Ethereum Foundation from defining a strong and clear direction ;

• Support deemed too weak for ecosystem players : some testimonials highlight a lack of structure, incentives, and guidance for those building on Ethereum.

Taken together, these elements highlight a crisis of narrative and strategic positioning, weakening Ethereum’s ability to attract talent, capital, and new crypto projects, despite an always technically advanced architecture.

When price becomes the dominant narrative

Price dynamics remain the main driver of the perceived narrative in the crypto ecosystem. “In crypto, price makes the narrative, and stagnation is perceived as a form of immobility,” note the researchers. In other words, no matter the technical advances: if the ETH price remains flat, the dominant perception will be of a project losing momentum.

This point is all the more marked as the study was conducted at a time when ETH struggled to regain upward momentum, despite active development on the long-term roadmap.

The researchers do not offer solutions, but open the debate : should the ecosystem leadership be redefined? Can success indicators other than price be designed? How to make a complex vision more accessible without diluting it ?

They emphasize the need to open collective reflection, particularly on how to support developers, unite users, and better embody Ethereum’s vision in a narrative understandable by all.

While ETH reached a new ATH at $4,950, this temporary improvement should not mask the structural vulnerabilities identified by the study. While price dynamics can temporarily silence critics, they do not replace a clear, shared, and embodied vision. This report invites thinking about Ethereum beyond technology and the market, placing at the heart of the project what is sorely missing today: a strong narrative, a unifying communication strategy, and the ability to engage the community in something other than the price curve.