Ever wonder why some of the biggest Ethereum believers suddenly start shilling new L1s with no users, no apps, no product? I did too. Until I saw what changed: They raised a VC fund. And suddenly, it all made sense. I've followed a few smart, early Ethereum bulls on here for years. Deeply involved, thoughtful, aligned with the ecosystem. Then they raise a venture fund. And within months, they're hyping every new alt-L1 under the sun. Networks that barely exist. Chains with nothing live. At first, I thought they just changed their mind. Maybe they got tired of ETH's slow governance or scaling delays. But the shift was too clean. Too consistent. Too convenient. So I started asking: What changed? Why go from building on Ethereum to betting against it? Turns out, the answer is pretty simple. It comes down to two things: 1⃣ Exit Timelines 2⃣ Narrative Control Incentive 1: Exit Timelines When you launch a new L1, you can sell the story before the product exists. You can raise early, launch a token early, mark up the value early. Solana did it. Avalanche did it. Even Aptos and Sui pulled it off. This is a dream setup for a VC on a 7-year cycle who needs quick wins to show LPs. Early token = early liquidity = early exits. Ethereum doesn't let you do that. You can't pump vapor. With an Ethereum based app, you have to ship real products. You need audits. Users. Traction. The valuation comes from actual demand, not from hype. Incentive 2: Narrative Control A new L1 is a blank slate. You can promise anything - 100K TPS, no MEV, perfect UX. There's nothing live to prove you wrong. You control the story. You ride the hype. Ethereum doesn't give you that luxury. It’s live. The data is there. Every exaggerated claim can be fact checked, on-chain, by anyone. And that’s the real threat: Ethereum can already do 90% of what these new L1s claim - just via smart contracts. But ETH does it with stronger network effects, more decentralization, and actual users. So how do you compete? You yell louder. You hype harder. You flood the zone with noise. And this is how it plays out, again and again: Raise a fund, back a new L1, hype the L1 hard, ride the token launch, exit early, move on. What looks like conviction is just incentives. And the faster you understand that, the clearer the space becomes.