According to CoinMeta, co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the logic behind using a fee destruction mechanism to evaluate ETH is not as strong as it seems, and argued that ETH should be considered a store of value asset. He believes that optimizations aimed at value storage are in line with the goals of decentralization, resistance to censorship, anti-capturing, open-source, privacy, and security. Tom Lee, the chairman of Bitmine, called this view a major shift and endorsed the company's strategy. Bitmine holds approximately 6 million ETH. As of the time mentioned in the original text, the price of ETH is about 58% lower than its peak of around $4,946 in August 2025; the cumulative capital inflow into ETH ETF has decreased by 23%, and BTC ETF has decreased by 12%. Bitmine indicated that based on current yields, the pledged ETH could generate an annual income of $309 million.