What the typical crypto investor doesn’t understand is that ETH is the gravitational center of the Ethereum system. No matter what scaling solution you look at — rollups, validiums, or EigenLayer-enabled systems like MegaETH — everything ultimately anchors back to onchain Ether. - Rollups settle their state roots on Ethereum Mainnet, secured by validators who stake ETH and are paid in ETH-denominated fees. - Validiums keep data offchain but rely on Ethereum to verify proofs, secured again by ETH-staked validators. - EigenLayer extends Ethereum’s security to new systems by restaking ETH itself — making Ether the direct collateral behind decentralized infrastructure. No matter how modular the architecture becomes, ETH remains the asset where value consolidates — the asset that ties it all together. Yet despite Ether’s central role in scalability, the proliferation of Ethereum scaling solutions hasn’t triggered a surge in ETH demand. Why? Because Ethereum’s modular stack is still early. The stats show it: - Ethereum Mainnet holds over $121 billion in TVL. - The largest Layer 2, Base, holds about $2 billion — under 2% of Mainnet. The market still overwhelmingly trusts Mainnet. Rollups, restaking, and other extensions are earning their place — but they’re still in their infancy when it comes to security, uptime, and adoption. As these layers mature and users gain confidence, more value will migrate outward. But it won’t drift away — it’ll remain gravitationally bound to ETH. If Ethereum’s modular scaling roadmap succeeds, then economic activity on these extensions will eclipse Mainnet by orders of magnitude. And the demand for ETH — as the collateral, the fee token, the final settlement asset — will grow accordingly.