Vitalik Buterin Proposes RISC-V Upgrade to Boost Ethereum’s Execution Speed

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has suggested a bold change to the network’s execution layer by proposing a switch from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contract language to the RISC-V instruction set architecture.

In a proposal shared on April 20, Buterin outlined key bottlenecks that Ethereum must address to remain scalable and competitive.

These include improving data availability sampling, ensuring healthy competition in block production, and optimizing zero-knowledge proof generation.

Buterin Sees RISC-V as Key to Advancing Ethereum’s Zero-Knowledge Capabilities

Buterin said integrating RISC-V could unlock major gains in these areas, particularly for zero-knowledge functionalities, which are increasingly critical to Ethereum’s future.

“The beam chain effort holds great promise for simplifying Ethereum’s consensus layer,” Buterin wrote.

“But for the execution layer to achieve similar benefits, a radical shift like this may be the only viable path.”

The proposal comes at a time when Ethereum is under growing pressure to keep pace with newer, high-throughput blockchains such as Solana and Sui.

These networks offer faster and cheaper transactions, making them increasingly attractive to developers and users.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s revenue from “blob fees”—a form of transaction fee collected from layer-2 networks—has plummeted.

Data from Etherscan shows blob fees dropped to just 3.18 ETH (approximately $5,000) during the week of March 30, while average network fees in April 2025 hit a five-year low of $0.16 per transaction.

Santiment’s marketing director Brian Quinlivan attributes the fee drop to reduced activity on the Ethereum base layer, as users migrate to layer-2 solutions.

While these networks have helped reduce transaction costs, they’ve also diverted significant fee revenue away from Ethereum’s core infrastructure.

🚨💸 BREAKING: Ethereum fees are at a 5-year low, with transactions currently costing just $0.168. This is the cheapest daily cost of making $ETH transfers since May 2, 2020. We briefly break this down in our latest insight. 👇https://t.co/fg5CfRgsHn pic.twitter.com/QlLwyzdm1F

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 16, 2025

This shift has raised concerns about the long-term sustainability of the base layer.

With ETH prices already under pressure, analysts warn that continued erosion of base-layer activity could drive Ether down further, potentially to levels around $1,100 if investor sentiment doesn’t recover.

VC Blames Layer-2s for Ether’s Waning Investment Appeal

Last month, crypto venture capitalist Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures pointed to two key issues undermining Ether’s value: the rise of layer-2 (L2) scaling networks and unchecked token issuance.

He argued that “greedy Eth L2s” are siphoning off value from Ethereum’s base layer while giving little back.

He also criticized the Ethereum community’s acceptance of excessive token creation, claiming that “ETH was buried in an avalanche of its own tokens. Died by its own hand.”

Carter’s comments followed a similarly stark assessment from Quinn Thompson, founder of Lekker Capital, who declared that Ethereum is “completely dead” as an investment.

Thompson cited declining transaction activity, reduced user growth, and falling network revenues as signs that ETH no longer offers a strong investment case, despite its utility as a blockchain platform.

Make no mistake, $ETH as an investment is completely dead. A $225 billion market cap network that is seeing declines in transaction activity, user growth and fees/revenues. There is no investment case here. As a network with utility? Yes. As an investment? Absolutely not. pic.twitter.com/XjZNjPjy2s

— Quinn Thompson (@qthomp) March 28, 2025

Back in September 2024, Carter warned that Ethereum’s fee revenue had plummeted by 99% over six months as L2s captured user activity and revenue without contributing to Ethereum’s base layer.