Kyle Samani is bearish on ETH's value capture ability, claiming it is only supported by stablecoins and collateralized lending.
Written by: Zoltan Vardai
Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News
Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, stated during an interview with Cointelegraph on the "Trade Secrets" program that more and more crypto companies will choose to develop projects on Solana rather than Ethereum due to Solana's easier accessibility and more complete features. He predicts that Ethereum's advantage as the default smart contract public chain in the crypto industry will gradually diminish, and Solana will surpass Ethereum in market capitalization during this cycle.
“All companies will switch their default development chain to Solana. For them, it’s the most complete network. Whenever conditions allow, integrating their businesses on Solana will be much easier.”
Samani and Multicoin invested heavily in Solana early on and have been one of Solana's most steadfast supporters over the years. According to his prediction, SOL's current market capitalization of $58 billion needs to increase fivefold to surpass Ethereum's current market capitalization of $293 billion.
Samani believes that “almost no one is really using Ethereum right now,” and that the reason Ethereum still maintains its position as a leading public chain is solely due to stablecoins and businesses that use ETH as collateral to lend stablecoins.
During the recent market rebound, the price increases of SOL and ETH were generally synchronized. TradingView data shows that ETH rose by 30% in the past month, while SOL rose by 34%. However, Solana's base for growth is lower, and it has also seen a larger decline during the bear market: SOL fell by 59% over the past year, while ETH's decline was 45%.
ETH to USD one-year trend chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Did Samani once feel disheartened and exit the crypto industry?
In February of this year, after ten years in the industry, Samani announced he was stepping down as managing partner of the crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital, describing the moment as “bittersweet.”
At that time, Samani appeared quite disappointed with the state of the industry. Reports indicate that he quickly deleted a tweet from the X platform stating, “I once believed in the vision of Web3 and decentralized applications (DApps). But I no longer believe… Cryptocurrency is not as wonderful as many crypto enthusiasts (including myself) envisioned.”
However, this crisis of confidence was only temporary. In September, Samani joined the U.S. board of directors for the crypto trading platform Backpack.
Source: Evanss6
Doubts about Ethereum's value capture ability
Samani stated that despite Ethereum being the largest smart contract network, he is bearish on its value accumulation ability.
“This is an asset with a size between $300 billion and $400 billion, and even if it can accumulate value, its effectiveness is questionable, and there is absolutely no growth.”
Samani added that he cannot understand why investors are willing to hold Ethereum at the current valuation levels, and he also mentioned that there are many more reasonably valued investment targets in the market.
He believes more crypto companies will turn to Solana. In his view, Solana is the “most complete network,” facilitating business integration for enterprises.
Although SOL's market capitalization is still less than one-fifth of Ethereum's, its weekly and monthly on-chain fee revenue has already surpassed Ethereum’s.
Top public chains by 30-day fee revenue. Data source: DefiLlama
DefiLlama data shows that in the past 30 days, Solana generated $23 million in fees, ranking fourth in monthly revenue; Ethereum generated $12.6 million, placing sixth.
Solana becomes one of Multicoin Capital's heaviest bets
Samani first encountered permissionless finance and smart contracts through Ethereum in 2016, calling Ethereum his “gateway into the crypto world.” However, he became dissatisfied with the Ethereum development team's handling of scalability issues and gradually lost confidence in Ethereum.
Shortly after founding Multicoin in May 2017, he came into contact with Solana. The firm subsequently led several rounds of early financing for Solana in 2018.
This investment ultimately became one of Multicoin's most successful bets in history. The firm disclosed in May 2025 that its assets under management reached $5.9 billion, making it one of the top crypto investment firms in the industry.
Before entering the crypto industry, Samani co-founded the medical information technology company Pristine and served as CEO, which developed software for surgeons using Google Glass.
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