Opinion: Vitalik's Influence to Weaken as Institutions Hold More ETH, Ethereum Could Become More "Wall Streetfied"

On November 20th, according to Arkham Data, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, currently holds approximately 244,000 ETH (including AETHWETH), which is worth about 7.4 billion US dollars. He ranks second in individual ETH holdings, only second to Ethereum ICO investor Rain Lohmus, who holds as much as 250,000 ETH. However, his ranking is facing a double challenge from cryptocurrency treasury (DAT) companies and spot ETFs. The three largest Ethereum cryptocurrency treasury (DAT) companies have surpassed Vitalik. Bitmine holds 3.56 million ETH, SharpLink holds 869,000 ETH, and The Ether Machine holds 496,000 ETH. Regarding spot ETFs, BlackRock holds about 3.94 million ETH, accounting for approximately 3.27% of the total supply. Fidelity and Grayscale's spot ETH are also steadily increasing. The community has begun to worry that Vitalik's influence may be weakened due to the decrease in his holdings. Since the founder's governance influence is crucial for the future development of Ethereum, Vitalik himself recently issued a warning at the Argentina Devcon conference. He stated that if institutional Ethereum holdings continue to expand, 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 incorrect technical choices. Institutional pressure may drive inappropriate technical decisions, such as a 150-millisecond block time, which is beneficial for high-frequency trading but hinders regular users from running nodes, resulting in geographical centralization. Vitalik emphasized that Ethereum should focus on globalization, permissionlessness, and censorship resistance protocol features, maintain a strong core community, and uphold the values that distinguish Ethereum from traditional finance.