Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams recently suggested that Solana may be better suited than Ethereum for building decentralized finance (DeFi) applications directly on a Layer 1 blockchain. According to Adams, Solana has a stronger roadmap, a more unified development approach, and a team that’s better positioned to support L1-centric DeFi growth.

Ethereum, the longtime leader in smart contract platforms, has spent recent years moving toward a modular strategy centered on Layer 2 networks, also known as rollups. These networks help reduce congestion and lower fees by executing transactions off-chain while settling on Ethereum’s mainnet. While this approach has unlocked greater scalability, it has also led to increasing complexity for users and developers alike.

Adams expressed concerns about this shift, questioning whether Ethereum’s long-term vision is drifting too far from its original design. He emphasized that Solana, with its monolithic architecture—where transaction execution, data availability, and consensus are handled all in one place—offers a simpler and more seamless experience for DeFi development and usage. His remarks hinted at a growing frustration among some Ethereum ecosystem participants who feel that the platform may be straying from its core strengths by leaning too heavily on external scaling layers.

He further questioned why Ethereum developers and the community would consider abandoning their years-long investment in the network’s base layer just as it nears the completion of its roadmap. While Adams stated he would accept a Layer 1-focused strategy, he acknowledged that such a direction comes with major compromises, likely referring to performance limits and challenges in maintaining decentralization.

In contrast to Adams’ view, Ethereum advocate and Bankless co-founder David Hoffman recently defended Ethereum’s strategy. In an upcoming article, Hoffman argued that Ethereum’s Layer 1 should continue to be the main hub for DeFi activity. He described Ethereum as the only blockchain to consistently deliver decentralized smart contract infrastructure with perfect uptime, and asserted that no other network currently matches Ethereum’s combination of reliability, security, and developer support.

Hoffman believes Ethereum remains the most viable long-term home for decentralized applications and assets, despite the complexity introduced by rollups and scaling solutions. He insisted that Ethereum should be the place where developers build, users engage, and assets flow—essentially saying that the network can still support DeFi directly on Layer 1, even as it expands its modular framework.

At the core of this discussion is a philosophical divide over how to scale blockchain networks effectively. Ethereum is betting on a layered ecosystem that distributes activity across rollups, sidechains, and other solutions. Solana, meanwhile, is optimizing a high-performance, all-in-one blockchain that handles everything on the same layer.

The conversation raised by Adams’ remarks highlights the ongoing evolution of DeFi and how infrastructure choices can shape the future of finance on the blockchain. As the space matures, the industry may increasingly embrace a multi-chain reality where different blockchains serve different needs. But for now, the debate over the best path forward—monolithic versus modular—continues to heat up, with some of the most influential voices in crypto offering very different visions.