Ethcoin has emerged as a significant player in the cryptocurrency market, surpassing Uniswap and Tether as the top gas guzzler on the @ultrasoundmoney leaderboard. The mainnet Ouroboros is pricing Ethereum blockspace, and Ethcoin (ETHC) is being promoted for mining and integration. Ethcoin is also being touted as 'Ultra Hard Money' and is seen as optimizing for an extreme adversarial future, where global economic influence is a factor. Ethereum, meanwhile, remains the most decentralized settlement layer, attracting major players like BlackRock but facing challenges such as high fees and a slow chain. Vitalik Buterin and others are noting that Ethereum aims to scale to 100k+ tps and achieve 10ms latency.