Opinion: Institutions Are Challenging Vitalik's Discourse Power, Ethereum May Shift Towards a More "Wall Street-Style" Transformation

BlockBeats News, November 20, according to Arkham data, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin currently holds about 244,000 ETH (including AETHWETH), valued at approximately $740 million, ranking second among individual ETH holders, only behind Ethereum ICO investor Rain Lohmus, who holds as much as 250,000 ETH. However, his ranking is facing a dual challenge from crypto treasury (DAT) companies and spot ETFs.

The three largest Ethereum crypto treasury (DAT) companies have already surpassed Vitalik: Bitmine holds 3.56 million ETH, SharpLink holds 869,000 ETH, and The Ether Machine holds 496,000 ETH. In terms of spot ETFs, BlackRock holds about 3.94 million ETH, accounting for approximately 3.27% of the total supply, with Fidelity and Grayscale spot ETH holdings also rising steadily.

The community has begun to worry that Vitalik's influence may be weakened due to the decline in his share of holdings, as the founder's governance influence is crucial to Ethereum's future development. Vitalik himself also issued a warning at the recent Devconnect conference in Argentina, stating that if institutional Ethereum holdings continue to expand, Ethereum will face two major threats. The primary risk is the potential exodus of users and core developers who truly care about decentralization, leading to community attrition. The second risk is the possibility of making incorrect technical choices, as institutional pressure may drive improper technical decisions. For example, a 150-millisecond block time may benefit high-frequency trading but would prevent ordinary users from running nodes, resulting in geographic centralization. Vitalik emphasized that Ethereum should focus on global, permissionless, and censorship-resistant protocol features, maintain a strong core community, and uphold the values that distinguish Ethereum from traditional finance.