The Great .Eth Erasure: A Crypto Fad Fades on Twitter – The Information

It was one of the most ostentatious symbols of the crypto fever that swept through the land earlier this year.

Starting late last year, venture capitalists, executives, celebrities and a handful of corporate brands began conspicuously changing the names on their Twitter profiles to their usernames on their Ethereum accounts. The move helped them flex their crypto know-how while providing a way to show off blockchain assets they owned, such as digital art. Talk show host Jimmy Fallon became Fallon.eth, investor and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian became AlexisOhanian.eth and retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal became Shaq.eth.

The trend was short-lived. By October people began quietly removing the suffix from their Twitter names. At least 16,000 Twitter accounts got rid of it between February and October, according to an analysis conducted by programmer Travis Brown and provided to The Information. Paris Hilton, Budweiser USA and Andreessen Horowitz’s Andrew Chen were all among those that dropped the .eth, along with Fallon, Ohanian and O’Neal.