Opinion: Institutions are challenging Vitalik's influence, Ethereum may be transitioning to a more "Wall Street-friendly" posture
BlockBeats News, November 20th, according to Arkham Data, Ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin's ETH holdings currently amount to approximately 244,000 ETH (including AETHWETH), worth about 7.4 billion US dollars, ranking second in individual ETH holdings, second only to Ethereum ICO investor Rain Lohmus's holding of up to 250,000 ETH. However, his ranking faces a dual challenge from the Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies and spot ETF.
The three largest Ethereum Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies have surpassed Vitalik, with Bitmine holding 3.56 million ETH, SharpLink holding 869,000 ETH, and The Ether Machine holding 496,000 ETH. As for spot ETF, BlackRock holds about 3.94 million ETH, accounting for approximately 3.27% of the total supply, with Fidelity and Grayscale spot ETH following closely behind and continuously rising.
The community is beginning to worry that Vitalik's influence or governance power may be weakened due to the decrease in his holdings percentage. The founder's governance influence is crucial for the future development of Ethereum. Vitalik himself recently issued a warning at the Argentina Devcon conference, stating that if institutional Ethereum holdings continue to grow, Ethereum will face two major threats. The primary risk is the potential alienation of those who truly care about decentralization and core developers, leading to community attrition. The secondary risk is the possibility of making wrong technical choices; institutional pressure may drive improper technical decisions, such as a 150-millisecond block time that benefits high-frequency trading but hinders regular users from running nodes, causing geographical centralization. Vitalik emphasizes that Ethereum should focus on its global, permissionless, censorship-resistant protocol features, maintain a strong core community, and uphold the values that differentiate Ethereum from traditional finance.
You may also like
340 billion valuation: Li Yanhong's largest IPO, a seat in Kunlunxin's shares is hard to come by
Stablecoins are the "royalists" of the crypto world: Open USD brings the old currency system into play
Semiconductor stocks plummet, yet Anthropic wants to create a 2nm chip
Where is Zhao Changpeng's billion-dollar investment going? YZi Labs' investment landscape fully revealed
Ethereum Foundation Report: A Basic Guide to Ethereum for Governments and Financial Institutions
A pre-announced harvesting case: After the cryptocurrency price dropped by 99%, the public chain Saga exited to transform into AI
When American giants collectively "defect" from Chinese AI models
BIS Report Compliance Observation: The Real Risks of Stablecoins, Not Just "Depegging"
Portugal 2-1 Croatia: Ronaldo's 20-Year Knockout-Stage Drought Ends With a Debt Finally Collected
Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 in the 2026 global football championship's knockout rounds as Ronaldo scored his first-ever knockout-stage goal, Gonçalo Ramos struck a stoppage-time winner, and VAR ruled out a late equalizer for offside.
Bitcoin Price Prediction July 2026: Will BTC Recover to $70K or Drop Below $55K?
A South Korean company that learned the strategy of hoarding coins, from a bull market to delisting?
WEEX API Broker Program: Turn Your Trading Platform Into a Revenue Engine
How to choose between buying discounted ETH, Bitmine, and SharpLink?
Wosh: Inflation has cooled in recent weeks, AI is reshaping the economy, and forward guidance has lost its necessity
From Pump.fun to Collector Crypt: Has Solana's income throne changed hands?
Dan Bin's latest speech: Don't miss out on a great era
Robinhood launches its own blockchain, no longer wanting to be a tenant on others' chains
Why Tokenized Stocks Are Booming in 2026 While Crypto Is Still Struggling
340 billion valuation: Li Yanhong's largest IPO, a seat in Kunlunxin's shares is hard to come by
Stablecoins are the "royalists" of the crypto world: Open USD brings the old currency system into play
Semiconductor stocks plummet, yet Anthropic wants to create a 2nm chip
Where is Zhao Changpeng's billion-dollar investment going? YZi Labs' investment landscape fully revealed
Ethereum Foundation Report: A Basic Guide to Ethereum for Governments and Financial Institutions
A pre-announced harvesting case: After the cryptocurrency price dropped by 99%, the public chain Saga exited to transform into AI
Popular coins
Latest Crypto News
