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After years of denial, Vitalik Buterin admits L2s aren’t “branded shards.” What that means for ETH, L2 tokens, and who’s who benefits now.
Ethereum’s evolving role as L2s shift from “branded shards” to sovereign systems.
(Credits: ChatGPT
Over the past week, Bitcoin fell from roughly $84,000 to a low near $60,000 before reclaiming the $70,000 level, one of the sharpest drawdowns the market has seen in years. ETH also dropped from $2,700 to nearly $1,800, but is now above $2,000.
Posted February 6, 2026 at 6:37 pm EST.
On Tuesday, Vitalik Buterin said the original vision of layer 2s as branded shards “no longer makes sense.”
This piece isn’t about the crash itself, but periods like this tend to force a reset in how investors think about what they own and why — and Vitalik Buterin’s latest blog post about Ethereum’s direction sets a new tone for ETH.
For example, figures in the Solana ecosystem, including Max Resnick and Kyle Samani, have long warned that rollups siphon activity from L1 without reliably returning value and that Ethereum’s roadmap was utterly wrong.
The post wasn’t a technical update so much as a concession. After years of treating L2s as Ethereum’s primary scaling path, Vitalik is now acknowledging what critics had argued all along: that L2s evolved into economically sovereign systems with incentives that do not always align with the base layer.
Vitalik’s post is the clearest acknowledgment yet that the old model is over. Ethereum no longer needs L2s as “branded shards,” as he called them in his blog post, and many L2s are “not able or willing” to meet those assumptions anyway.
Ethereum largely ignored those views until the post-Dencun reality made them harder to dismiss. Dencun, a March 2024 upgrade, slashed rollup data costs and worked as intended, but it also accelerated the migration of activity off L1, weakening fee burn and the “ultrasound money” narrative. After that, many started questioning L2s, calling them “parasitic.”
Now, what does this all mean for $ETH and other L2 tokens
In the rest of this article, we’ll move past protocol design and into market consequences:
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The RWA Revolution: Why Dusk is the Future of Regulated Finance in 2026
​The narrative around Real-World Assets (RWA) has shifted from mere speculation to a trillion-dollar reality. As we navigate the complexities of digital finance, one project stands out for its unique approach to institutional-grade infrastructure: @dusk_foundation.
​Privacy-First, Compliance Always
Unlike general-purpose blockchains, $DUSK is purpose-built for the financial sector. The primary challenge for traditional institutions moving on-chain has always been the trade-off between privacy and transparency. Dusk solves this with its pioneering use of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). This technology allows for confidential transactions that are still fully auditable by regulators, meeting strict KYC/AML and MiCA standards without exposing sensitive business data.
​The Power of DuskEVM and Mainnet Growth
With the 2026 mainnet upgrades, the ecosystem has reached a major milestone. The introduction of DuskEVM has been a game-changer, allowing Ethereum developers to deploy privacy-preserving dApps using familiar tools. Key highlights include:
​Institutional Adoption: Partnerships like the project with NPEX (a regulated Dutch exchange) are bringing hundreds of millions of euros in tokenized securities on-chain.
​SBA Consensus: Dusk’s unique consensus mechanism ensures fast finality and security, essential for high-frequency financial operations.
​Token Utility: The $DUSK token is the heart of the network, used for staking, gas fees, and governance, creating a sustainable economic model as network activity surges.
​Bridging the Gap
In 2026, @dusk_foundation is no longer just a "privacy coin"; it is the default settlement layer for tokenized capital markets. By automating compliance through code, it eliminates middlemen and reduces costs for both issuers and investors.
​If you are following the RWA trend, $DUSK is the fundamental infrastructure project to watch. It is building the bridge that will finally allow institutional liquidity to flow seamlessly into the blockchain space.
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