Vitalik Buterin’s NFT selection sparks discussions on ‘Wartime Mode’, reveals Ethereum Founder

Buterin’s acquisition and use of a Miladys NFT on his social media accounts X and Farcaster comes at a time when the Ethereum community has expressed a number of concerns about the network’s trajectory and leadership.

Posted January 21, 2025 at 3:55 pm EST.

A simple change by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin of his social-media profile pic has kindled optimism among members of the blockchain’s community that he might be stepping into a more active leadership role of the ostensibly decentralized network.

In recent days, Buterin chose an NFT from the Ethereum-based Milady Maker collection as the avatar for his accounts on X and Farcaster. (Blockchain data suggests that a Buterin wallet address acquired the NFT as recently as Jan. 18.)

Posters on X have hailed the Miladys collection as representative of the “cypherpunk ethos,” and interpreted the move by Buterin as a sign that he’s moving into “wartime mode” as concerns mount that the blockchain might be lacking in direction or lagging in progress relative to competing networks including Solana and Bitcoin.

Buterin’s use of a Miladys NFT appears to be an effort to “resonate hard with grassroots ETH community,” one Milady holder told Unchained over Telegram. The person asked to remain anonymous to avoid getting in trouble with their employer.

Reaching a Breaking Point

A key data point is just how drastically Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, ETH, has underperformed relative to Solana’s SOL and bitcoin. The ETH price is basically flat on the year, after gaining 46% in 2024. That compares with SOL, which is up 34% this year after gaining 86% last year. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 14% in 2025 after more than doubling last year.

Members of the Ethereum community have raised concerns and quarreled over the performance of ETH, the Ethereum Foundation’s onchain transactions involving the sale of ETH, a perceived lack of strong leadership within the nonprofit organization, whether layer 2 networks that settle transactions on Ethereum are “parasitic” to the parent, and the stiff competition from Solana as a rival blockchain platform.

“We been annoyed but quiet for years,” wrote Marc Zeller, the founder of Aave Chain Initiative, early Tuesday. “We reached a breaking point and they not gonna kinsugi this one.” The reference is assumed to be “kintsugi,” which refers to the Japanese art of using gold to repair broken pottery.

Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, the leading decentralized-lending protocol on Ethereum, also has added a Miladys NFT to his profile on X, and in a post on Jan. 18 he wrote that “Ethereum needs wartime users.”

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