Ethereum's expansion is now dependent on the financial interests of treasury firms like Bitmine and Sharplink, creating a conflict where the entities funding institutional growth directly benefit from ETH price appreciation.

"Both firms benefit directly if the split works, since better infrastructure and cleaner institutional sales push ETH demand higher, and they hold enough ETH that a modest price move alters their balance sheets by hundreds of millions of dollars. Ethereum's expansion machine now runs on the same balance sheets it is supposed to expand."