Vitalik Buterin Advocates Positioning ETH as a Store-of-Value Asset

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said this week that ETH should be viewed as a store-of-value asset. According to Odaily, he said the argument for evaluating ETH based on its fee-burning mechanism is “not as strong as it may seem,” and that optimizing for store-of-value aligns with goals including decentralization, censorship resistance, resistance to capture, open-source development, privacy and security. ETH has previously been described as “ultrasound money” and “digital oil,” while “programmable store of value” has emerged more recently. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee called Buterin’s view a major shift and endorsed the company’s strategy. Bitmine holds about 6 million ETH. ETH was about 58% below its August 2025 peak of approximately $4,946. Over the same period, cumulative inflows into ETH ETFs declined 23%, while BTC ETF inflows fell 12%. Bitmine said that at current yields, it expects its staked ETH to generate $309 million in annual returns.