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Corporate Attempts to Create the Metaverse Going Nowhere: Vitalik Buterin

On July 31, Vitalik Buterin commented in response to Dialectic’s Dean Eigenmann’s thoughts on the future of the Metaverse and the way venture capital firms think it will play out.

The Ethereum co-founder is positive that the Metaverse will occur, but said that “any existing corporate attempts to deliberately create it are not going anywhere .”

He stated that there was no definition of Metaverse yet because it is too early to know what people are looking for. Then, he poked fun at Meta (formerly Facebook), which is trying monopolize Metaverse in the same way that it did with social media.

“Anything Facebook creates will cause .”

to fail.

The “metaverse”, as it is called, will happen. However, I doubt any of the corporate attempts to create it are going to succeed. https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 30, 2022

Corporate Metaverse Misfire

Meta is already in serious trouble for its monopolistic behaviour. Global regulators and policymakers smashed its big cryptocurrency ambitions, leading to the company’s abandonment of the project.

Last Wednesday, the United States Federal Trade Commission filed an action seeking to stop Meta’s plans for buying another Metaverse-based business. “Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” wrote FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman.

The social media giant tried to acquire virtual reality firm Within as well as its popular VR fitness app, Supernatural.

Buterin’s comments indicate that Meta/Facebook wants to dominate the Metaverse trend, but doesn’t actually know what it is or what people are looking for. If its ambitions come to fruition, a Facebook-based Metaverse is likely to be a dangerous place for people that value their data privacy and online safety.

In all likelihood, this will be another tool used by the company to bombard customers with advertisements while allowing scammers and spammers to enter the Web3 virtual world.

VC Profiteering

Regardless of whether it is the Meta platform or a more crypto-aligned platform that is heavily VC backed there will be concerns about centralization and profiteering.

Venture giants such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) have poured hundreds of millions into Metaverse projects over the past year or two.

This usually gives them vast amounts of governance tokens, giving them greater control over the platform’s direction than the people who use it and form the community.

Whatever form the Metaverse may take, it’s more likely to look like a Blade Runner-esque world with incessant advertising, corporate control, rather than the free, decentralized, and open virtual world we want.

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Ethereum

The Latest Ethereum Whale Activity: Should ETH Investors Worry?

Ethereum investors have shown some worrying trends as of late, with many prominent names, such as Galaxy Digital, disposing of substantial portions of their ETH holdings.

In this article, we will review the latest trends on the matter, including who is selling and who is buying.

The Sell-Offs

CryptoPotato has repeatedly reported in recent weeks the significant ETH sales completed by large investors, including whales and Galaxy Digital. The latter, in fact, has even started to replace its ether holdings with SOL, which could be an even more worrying trend.

These developments led to a price slump to $1,400 earlier this month. ETH managed to recover some of the losses and spiked to $1,800, which has only allowed some investors to cash out at more favorable prices.

According to data shared by Ali Martinez, whales have disposed of 262,000 ETH after the asset’s price started to recover. In USD terms, this stash is worth around $445 million.

Whales took advantage of the recent price surge, selling 262,000 #Ethereum $ETH, worth around $445 million. pic.twitter.com/sQ0PhAzyfX

— Ali (@ali_charts) April 29, 2025

Galaxy Digital has continued to deposit ETH to centralized exchanges, which is generally done with the obvious intention to sell. The latest batch to find its way to Coinbase was for 23,900 ETH (valued at $42.5 million), according to Lookonchain.

The same analytics tool provided an update about a whale that “can’t pick a side on ETH,” as they bought roughly 15,000 ETH at $1,801 and started selling just 3 hours later at a minor loss. Within the next 24 hours, the whale would have offloaded the entire stack.

This whale just sold all 10,511 $ETH($19.2M) at $1,828 again.https://t.co/bdIlDI9WrD pic.twitter.com/ZwP0JrxXTY

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 29, 2025

Some Are Buying, Though

Aside from the aforementioned bearish news, there are some reports claiming that Ethereum has turned itself around, which could be supported by a recent 10% spike in network activity. The ETH ETFs have also recorded several consecutive days of positive flows.

Additionally, Lookonchain reported that a wallet linked to Cumberland has withdrawn over $50 million worth of ether from Copper, Coinbase, and Binance within a short period. The team determined that “whales/institutions are accumulating ETH” following this post.

It seems that whales/institutions are accumulating $ETH!

Over the past 3 hours, a wallet linked to #Cumberland has withdrawn 27,632 $ETH($50.24M) from #Copper, #Binance, and #Coinbase.https://t.co/2CNtRUpICk pic.twitter.com/FK0A68w1vT

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 29, 2025

More good news for ETH came from BlackRock, as the world’s largest asset manager plans to tokenize its $150 billion Treasury Trust market fund on Ethereum.

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Ethereum

Big Win For Ethereum as BlackRock Tokenizes $150B Treasury Fund

“Ethereum just scored a monster win,” said former Ethereum developer Eric Connor on X on April 30.

His comment came in reaction to an April 28 prospectus filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by BlackRock, which aims to tokenize its $150 billion Treasury Trust market fund with a new “DLT Shares” asset class.

It is the “biggest real-world asset flow to Ethereum yet,” said Connor.

Ethereum just scored a monster win.

BlackRock filed to tokenize its $150bn Treasury Trust money-market fund with a new “DLT Shares” class.

BNY Mellon will keep a blockchain mirror of every share on-chain.

Biggest real-world asset flow to Ethereum yet.

— Eric Conner (@econoar) April 30, 2025

Ethereum Industry Standard for RWA

The BlackRock Treasury Trust Fund is a money market fund that invests only in short-term US Treasury securities to provide income while preserving liquidity and principal. It keeps fees low and is designed for very low-risk, stable returns.

The new tokenized DLT shares of its $150 billion Treasury Trust Fund will use blockchain technology to track ownership via BNY Mellon.

BlackRock previously launched the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on the Ethereum blockchain, in partnership with Securitize. It allows qualified investors to earn yields through tokenized US Treasury securities on Ethereum.

Onchain Foundation head of research Leon Waidmann reported that 93% of BlackRock’s BUIDL is on Ethereum. The fund currently has $2.34 billion in assets under management on Ethereum, according to rwa.xyz.

“Institutions follow deep liquidity, credible neutrality, and battle-tested security,” he said before adding, “ETH is already their settlement layer.”

“BlackRock is building on Ethereum. They’re betting on ETH as the leading ecosystem,” said researcher “CryptoGoos,” who added that Ethereum is “extremely undervalued.”

BlackRock is building on Ethereum.

They’re betting on $ETH as the leading eco-system.

Don’t get fooled now.

Ethereum is extremely undervalued. pic.twitter.com/dubhrzqxk4

— CryptoGoos (@crypto_goos) April 29, 2025

The firm does appear to be going all-in on tokenization. “Tokenization will revolutionize investing,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in March.

“Markets wouldn’t need to close. Transactions that currently take days would clear in seconds. And billions of dollars currently immobilized by settlement delays could be reinvested immediately back into the economy, generating more growth,” he added.

Ethereum is currently the industry standard for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization with a 56% market dominance and $6.2 billion tokenized on-chain (excluding stablecoins), according to rwa.xyz.

No Love For ETH Prices

ETH prices remain at bear market lows despite the bullish fundamentals. The asset has struggled to make any progress above $1,800 over the past week and is still lingering around levels last seen in September 2023.

ETH is still 63% down from its 2021 peak price and has declined almost 50% since the beginning of the year, but analysts and advocates still think it will reach five figures soon.

Nevertheless, institutions appear to be warming to cut-price Ether as BlackRock’s spot ETH ETF (ETHA) has scooped up $162 million worth of the asset over the past four trading days.

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Ethereum

Grayscale Pushes SEC to Approve Ethereum ETF Staking, Citing $61M Lost in Rewards

Grayscale is urging the SEC to approve staking for Ethereum ETFs, unlocking millions in rewards, strengthening Ethereum’s network, and propelling U.S. crypto investment forward. Grayscale Urges SEC to Allow Staking for Ethereum ETFs, Citing Major Investor Gains Representatives from Grayscale Investments convened with members of the U.S…
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