Ethereum's Future: Post-Pectra Incentive Alignment

Ethereum stands at a strategic crossroads. While it has made significant technical progress, transitioning to Proof-of-Stake, reducing issuance, and scaling through rollups, these advances have brought tradeoffs: fragmented user experiences, weakened fee capture, and a loss of narrative clarity. In 2025, however, signs of renewed direction have emerged. The Pectra upgrade, Ethereum Foundation leadership changes, and growing institutional engagement reflect a shift toward rebalancing L1 and L2 priorities. Rather than choosing a single identity, Ethereum is working to build a cohesive, scalable foundation that can support multiple roles, settlement layer, execution environment, and monetary asset, while remaining credibly neutral and decentralized.

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Drexel Bakker

DrxlEth

Drexel is a Research Manager at Messari for the Protocol Reporting team with a focus on base layers and DeFi. He is a strong follower of the crypto mullet thesis of diligence in the front and degen in the back.

Jake Koch-Gallup

immutablejacob

Jake is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Research team. He previously worked as an Investment Analyst at an AI-driven crypto research platform and as a Venture Analyst at a digital assets venture fund. He advised multiple RWA tokenization projects on tokenomics. Jake graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied Philosophy and Finance.

Alice Hou

FBitach

Alice is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Services team. She previously worked as a Research Analyst at The Block and was an Investment Intern at Variant Fund. Alice graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied Economics.

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