Every ETH cycle picks its FUD outlet:
2017 - CoinDesk (DCG-owned, Grayscale agenda)
2021 - The Block (SBF’s hidden loans + FTX alignment)
2025 - Blockworks (their VC arm pushing portfolio cos)
Notice the pattern? Media houses tied to big money eventually pivot to ETH FUD while promoting their backers’ bags.
Some think Vitalik should counter this with grants. But grants don’t solve capture - they invite it. Once you start paying outlets, it stops looking like “ecosystem support” and starts looking like bribery.
Take Bankless DAO:
- $450K from Optimism’s RetroPGF -> brief PR honeymoon
- Today? Dead silence on Optimism.
Meanwhile, @zachxbt exposed RetroPGF as a farce: millions of OP flowed into VC-backed stars (Gelato, Zora, Tenderly, Alchemy), while real public goods like BlockScout, Defillama & Rotki got sidelined (
That’s not decentralization. That’s laundering legitimacy through funding optics. Ethereum doesn’t need to subsidize media empires to be liked.
It needs to stay incorruptible.
Coindesk - 2017
The Block - 2021
Blockworks - 2025
Every cycle there's a big ETH fudder media house
Can Vitalik solve this with grants?
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