According to Buterin, modexp can be “50 times worse than average blocks” for the ZK-EVM proof. This confirms that the inefficiency is now too great to ignore.
In his own words, he even said he “hangs his head in shame” for making it up.
Source:
The community response was simple: it’s a waste of engineering time, and fixing modexp is more important than making tiny efficiencies elsewhere.
As one user said,
“It makes sense. The opportunity cost of optimizing obscure opcodes is huge compared to improving base scalability layers.”
This is important because if ZK proof remains slow, ETH scaling stops.
And that risk is suddenly front and center.
To make matters worse…
Yesterday alone, ETH ETFs saw outflows of $135.7 million, with BlackRock alone dumping $81.7 million. This is institutional capital that actively reduces exposure.
Source:
And scale matters here – this is one of the largest single-day release clusters since launch. If large allocators continue to withdraw liquidity at this rate, Ethereum will struggle to find a floor.
This turns the modexp debate into a problem of capital flight.
ETH sits below key structure
At press time, Ethereum price was trading near $3,480 after a strong two-day candle sell-off that erased most of last week’s rally.
The RSI suggests that momentum has been weak, but not yet fully oversold. OBV also continued to decline. So the volume comes out, not in.
Source: TradingView
Structurally, this means that ETH failed to defend its support in the short term.
Unless demand returns quickly, there is a clear risk of a deeper fall (potentially towards the $3.3K-$3.35K pocket), before a real attempt higher can form.
