Why We Are Not Adding Ethereum Right Now

This is one of those decisions that can sound strange at first, because Ethereum is still the most obvious name in the room.

So let us say it clearly: Ethereum is important, and yes, we expect to support it. But no, it is not the next chain we want to add right now.

If we were building a list for brand recognition only, Ethereum would be near the top automatically.

But a payment product is not just a list of famous chains. The real question is which chain gives the cleanest, most practical payment experience for merchants and payers today.

Ethereum is still central to crypto as an ecosystem. That part is not in dispute.

But the chain that matters most in markets is not always the chain that makes the most sense as the very next payment rail. For checkout, gas predictability, user friction, and support load matter a lot more than reputation alone.

The main reason is simple: Ethereum is usually a more expensive payment environment than the lower-cost EVM chains we are already working with or considering next.

That does not mean it is bad. It means it is less forgiving. A product that is still expanding its live payment surface should be careful about adding a chain that makes small and medium-sized checkout flows feel heavier than they need to.

A payment flow should feel clear and proportionate.

If someone wants to pay a fairly normal amount in crypto, the experience should not immediately become a conversation about gas pain, fee timing, and whether this was the right moment to sign. That is one of the reasons Ethereum is not the obvious next move for us right now.

There is always some temptation to add Ethereum early just because it sounds serious.

But serious product work is not about choosing the chain with the strongest brand. It is about choosing the chain that makes the product more usable. Those are not always the same thing.

If the goal is to broaden practical EVM payment support, Polygon is the cleaner next move.

It gives us another familiar EVM environment, broad wallet support, lower-cost transaction behavior, and a more natural fit for the type of merchant checkout experience we are trying to improve first.

Not adding Ethereum right now does not mean ignoring Ethereum.

It just means we are trying to sequence the roadmap in a way that keeps the product operationally sane. Ethereum still matters for coverage, visibility, and users who specifically want it. It just does not win the next-slot decision for checkout practicality.

This is really the whole argument in one sentence.

We are not trying to build the most predictable list of chain names. We are trying to build a payment system that gets stronger in the right order. And right now, the best next step is not Ethereum. It is the chain that gives us the best practical expansion of the payment surface with the least unnecessary friction.

That is the real philosophy behind this decision.

Ethereum deserves to be added when it improves the stack for the right reasons, not just because it is the name everybody expects first. In roadmap terms, that usually leads to better products and fewer regrets.