Corporate treasuries in Ethereum are beneficial: they broaden the investor base and offer alternative investment options. However, excessive leverage by companies could turn this into a “dangerous game,” Vitalik Buterin stated during a Bankless podcast.
Are ETH Treasuries good for Ethereum?@VitalikButerin thinks they can be:
“ETH just being an asset that companies can have as part of their treasury is good and valuable… giving people more options is good.”
But he also issues a warning:
“If you woke me up 3 years from now… pic.twitter.com/W55oUD7Lke
— Bankless (@BanklessHQ) August 7, 2025
The Ethereum co-founder endorsed the inclusion of ether in the reserves of public firms. According to him, this practice provides access to cryptocurrency for a wider range of investors, including those who cannot or do not wish to directly own digital assets.
However, Buterin expressed concerns about aggressive lending against Ethereum collateral. He believes this could lead to a market crash.
“If you woke me up three years from now and told me that the creation of treasuries caused the ETH crash, I would assume they turned the ecosystem into an over-leveraged game,” he said.
Nonetheless, the programmer is confident that Ethereum investors are disciplined enough to avoid such a scenario.
“These are not Do Kwon followers,” Buterin remarked, recalling the collapse of the Terra blockchain in 2022.
Ethereum Treasuries
As of August 8, public companies manage 3 million ETH valued at $11.9 billion. The leader is BitMine Immersion Technologies, holding 833,100 ETH worth $3.2 billion.
Following are SharpLink Gaming and The Ether Machine, owning 521,000 ETH ($2.04 billion) and 345,000 ETH ($1.35 billion) respectively.
On August 7, Nasdaq-listed firm Fundamental Global filed for a $5 billion stock sale to purchase ether. At the end of July, the company announced a private placement of $200 million, which it planned to allocate for acquiring Ethereum and staking.
Earlier, Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets, Geoffrey Kendrick, stated that firms with reserves in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap attract investors more strongly than spot ETH ETFs. According to him, since June, such entities have purchased 1.6% of the market supply of ether.