According to Vitalik Buterin, the future of Ethereum ETHUSD lies not in NFTs or meme coins, but in something far simpler — low-risk DeFi. In a new essay, the Ethereum co-founder likened this to how search became Google’s main source of income, powering every other service around the internet giant.

In short, the point is that Ethereum doesn’t need hype cycles to survive. What it needs is a solid foundation of payment systems, savings accounts, collateralized lending and synthetic assets that will stand the test of time. These are trustworthy tools that also keep ETH locked up and fees flowing.

The numbers show why this shift is important. Back in 2019, Ethereum DeFi losses amounted to more than 5% of the total value locked. By 2025, that figure had dropped to almost zero.

Protocols have become safer, risks have dropped, and the wild edges of DeFi have moved further away from the core. Buterin argues that, for millions of users, the risks in traditional finance are now greater than those in DeFi.

“Digital oil” or new Google?

Low-risk DeFi also creates opportunities for the road ahead. These include reputation-based lending without heavy collateral, prediction markets used for hedging and new forms of stable value, such as “flatcoins” tied to inflation indexes. All of these build on the safer foundations being formed today.

Buterin is clear in his message — Ethereum’s biggest application doesn’t need to be revolutionary. It just needs to work everywhere, reliably. Low-risk DeFi fits that role, and if he is right, it could be the piece that finally makes Ethereum both sustainable and integral.