ETH will not die from collapse. It will die a slow death. They are running out of narratives to pump it. ETH the asset will likely get some interest as a high beta to Bitcoin play (which is moronic but how the algos currently trade it) but unlikely we will see organic platform growth with the ICO, NFT and Defi bubbles all having popped.

They are between a rock and hard place in terms of staking withdrawals. If they unlock during a bear market the price will collapse but if the bear market is prolonged and they don't unlock they will lose all credibility.

There is also the looming question of regulation. Powerful forces want ETH to be regulated as a commodity by CFTC but the collapse of FTX has shone quite a light on the folks in congress who were being paid off by Sam and other shitcoin promoters to allow the regulatory arbitrage of proof of stake protocols to continue and thrive. It may take years for the SEC vs CFTC oversight debate to play out or it could come swiftly, who knows. Another potential outcome is both bodies would have some regulatory oversight over "crypto" or they create some new regulatory body (bureaucrats love more senseless bureaucracy). Although I would disagree with this, I could see some middle ground where ETH is declared a commodity but staked ETH a security. This seems ridiculous because of unnecessary complexity but that's precisely the type of thing bureaucrats do.

I very much hope this past boom was the final "crypto" bull run. I don't expect it all to go away. Amongst 8 billion people there will be any number of millions of fools, scammers, traders, arbitragers, technologists who will keep the system alive but without the oxygen of mass attention and new entrants the fire is unlikely to spread. Hopefully.

That's my 2 sats. Happy stacking!

GR