From ‘Ethereum’s sidekick’ to standalone stars: How Vitalik Buterin’s latest pivot is forcing Layer 2s to grow up

For years, Ethereum’s layer-2 networks have marketed themselves as extensions of Ethereum itself. “Arbitrum is Ethereum,” Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder wrote on X in March 2024. “Base is Ethereum,” Coinbase’s layer-2 team posted in April 2025.

But following recent comments from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin questioning whether Ethereum still needs a dedicated layer-2 roadmap, many of those same teams are now emphasizing something different: that rollups are not Ethereum at all.

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Goldfeder, for one, struck a noticeably different tone after Buterin’s post, writing on X instead: “Arbitrum is not Ethereum.”

“It’s a core part of the ecosystem, a close-knit ally, and has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship for the last half-decade. But it is not Ethereum,” he added in the