In this market cycle, ETH is quite similar to that:

No one praises it usually.
But when it comes to critical moments, everyone still has to come back to it.
Recently, the market has been chasing Meme, AI, small coins.
Many people start to complain that ETH is too slow and too boring.
But lately, a very realistic problem has emerged:
The truly big funds, stablecoins, RWA, on-chain finance, still ultimately move to Ethereum.
Because people realize only after playing around for a while:
Speed is important.
But security is even more important.
Especially now, traditional finance is starting to rely on the chain:
ETF, stablecoins, tokenization of US stocks, RWA…
What these things ultimately need most is not emotion.
But a sufficiently stable underlying layer.
And ETH is increasingly becoming the “financial foundation” of crypto.
It may not rise as sharply on a daily basis.
But as the market develops further, its position becomes harder to replace.