#数字货币市场洞察 Vitalik Buterin recently sent out a noteworthy signal at the Devconnect conference in Argentina.

He pointed out that the continuous influx of institutional funds is bringing two levels of challenges to Ethereum. The first is the subtle change in the community ecosystem. As institutions gain more say, early participants and developers who are committed to the belief in decentralization may choose to leave. This is not a simple personnel shift, but a clash of values—when the community’s direction begins to deviate from its original intention, cultural dilution becomes almost inevitable.

The choice of technical direction is the second risk point. Some voices have proposed reducing block time to 150 milliseconds, arguing it would optimize the experience for high-frequency trading. But this seemingly reasonable technical upgrade would in fact raise the barrier for regular users to run nodes. The end result? Nodes would become concentrated in a few regions, and geographic centralization would quietly take shape.

The core point Vitalik emphasizes is that Ethereum's foundation lies in its global network, permissionless access, and resistance to censorship. These features are what set it apart from traditional financial systems and are the source of community consensus.

The reality at the data level is equally daunting. Nine Wall Street institutions already control more than $18 billion in $ETH, and some forecasts suggest that institutional holdings may exceed 10% of total supply in the future.

As institutional power continues to expand, Ethereum is standing at a crossroads where choices must be made. How to find a balance between capital adoption and protocol purity is a question without a ready answer.