Vitalik Buterin & Tom Lee Clash on Ethereum Treasuries: Explosive Growth vs. Hidden Risks in 2025

Ethereum’s treasury strategy is under the microscope—again. Vitalik Buterin champions its growth potential, while Wall Street’s Tom Lee fires back with risk warnings. Who’s right?

Growth or Gamble? The $64B Question

Buterin’s vision? A decentralized treasury fueling Ethereum’s next evolution. Lee’s counter? "Crypto doesn’t need a Fed—especially one with a meme coin addiction." Ouch.

The Hidden Time Bomb

Smart contracts don’t sleep—but neither do regulators. With staking yields tanking and Layer 2s eating fees, Ethereum’s "risk-free" reserves look… risky.

2025’s Make-or-Break Moment

Bull case: Treasury assets backstop developer exodus. Bear case: It’s just another hedge fund—with worse transparency than a Caymans shell company.

Ethereum treasury companies are quickly becoming a new way for institutions to hold and manage ETH. With billions already stored, this trend has caught the attention of ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Fundstrat’s Tom Lee. 

Both see big opportunities, but they also highlight risks that could impact the ecosystem.

Dive in for the insights.

Vitalik Buterin on ETH Treasuries: Promise and Risk

Speaking on the Bankless podcast, Buterin welcomed the rise of Ethereum treasury companies, saying that having multiple ways to hold ETH makes the ecosystem stronger. 

At the same time, he warned about the dangers of too much leverage, which could cause cascading liquidations and create market instability.

Even so, Buterin believes that responsible players in the space make these products fundamentally stable and potentially long-lasting. In a lighter moment, he even joked that the US government is his favorite “treasury company” for its role in helping recover stolen Ethereum.

Tom Lee’s Big Bet on ETH Treasuries

Notably, Ethereum treasury companies now hold nearly 3.7 million ETH worth over $16 billion, with BitMine Immersion leading the list.

Tom Lee, Fundstrat founder and the chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, is also betting big on Ethereum.

Bitmine aims to replicate the success of Bitcoin treasury companies, but with Ethereum, there are key differences. Tom Lee points out that Ethereum can earn staking yield, it has higher volatility than Bitcoin, and it plays a more active role in financial infrastructure. 

Ethereum’s Growth, Privacy Vision, and Relation to Bitcoin

Buterin also touched upon Ethereum’s growth from a small college project to a global platform, far exceeding his initial expectations.

He pointed to several milestones that surprised him along the way:

• The 2016 DAO hack and hard fork
• The rapid rise of DeFi and NFTs
• The fast progress of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs)

While the transition to Proof of Stake took longer than expected, he is encouraged by the advances in ZK technology, which he believes could open up entirely new opportunities for Ethereum.

Ethereum’s Unique Identity 

Looking ahead, Buterin wants privacy to be standard in Ethereum wallets, making it easy for users to keep balances and transactions private. He believes that tools like Privacy Pools can protect privacy while stopping illegal activity, even better than traditional finance.

On Ethereum and Bitcoin, he sees respect between developers but differences in ideas. He compares Ethereum to a teenager growing up, while bitcoin is still “learning to drive.”