Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has held the top spot in “KOL mindshare” for the last week on Crypto X amid a flood of criticism of the blockchain and the Ethereum Foundation. 

According to Andy, host of the crypto show The Rollup, who cited data from Kaito AI, the “wartime mode” Buterin had the highest relative KOL mindshare over the past seven days at 1.69%, followed by Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz at 1.18%. 

Buterin was forced to write a lengthy post on X recently, defending the Ethereum Foundation’s routine sale of Ether ( ETH ). 

Vitalik Buterin in ‘wartime mode’ tops KOL mindshare as he slams ETH critics image 0

Source: Andy / Kaito AI

Slamming the critics, Buterin said the sales are used to pay Ethereum developers and researchers in exchange for maintaining the network’s proof-of-stake mechanism, allowing transaction inclusion in less than 30 seconds at low fees, allowing privacy features with zero-knowledge proofs and keeping the network running with no downtime since 2016. He said: 

“Show some respect.”
Vitalik Buterin in ‘wartime mode’ tops KOL mindshare as he slams ETH critics image 1

Source: Vitalik Buterin

Asked why the Ethereum Foundation doesn’t stake all of its Ether and use the revenue to cover costs instead of selling, Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation wants to avoid being forced to make an “official choice” in the event of a contentious hard fork.

Still, Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is exploring other methods to engage with staking, including issuing grants in staked Ether that would allow grant recipients to control withdrawal timelines and keep the rewards. 

He also discussed delegating the Ethereum Foundation’s staking responsibilities to other organizations.

Related: Vitalik Buterin sings at Token2049, highlights low L2 fees as ETH milestone

Buterin has become more vocal on X of late as Ethereum FUD has run rampant.

Negative sentiment has stemmed mainly from Ether’s poor price performance relative to Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Solana ( SOL ), Ether’s layer-2 scaling strategy and falling revenues on the base layer.

Buterin has been touting Ethereum’s technical roadmap , sharing his insights and recommendations on how the “Merge,” “Surge,” “Scourge” Verge” and “Purge” stages may impact Ethereum’s future.

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