Ethereum Advances P2P Networking as Institutional ETH Purchases Surge
Early results from PeerDAS indicate that the Ethereum Foundation can now implement complex peer-to-peer (P2P) networking upgrades at scale, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said.
In an X post Monday, Buterin acknowledged that the Foundation previously lacked deep P2P expertise, having focused heavily on crypto economics, byzantine fault-tolerant consensus, and block-layer research while overlooking the network layer. “The sentiment has changed,” he noted, praising Raúl Jordan and others for successfully launching the system.
PeerDAS, a prototype for Data Availability Sampling (DAS), is a key component of Ethereum’s sharding roadmap. It allows light clients to verify shard data through sampling, boosting scalability while preserving decentralization and security.
Buterin also highlighted the need for an on-chain gas futures market. Prediction markets on BASEFEE could help users anticipate future gas costs and enable teams to hedge congestion risk over the long term.
These developments coincide with renewed institutional ETH accumulation. BitMine Immersion Technologies, Ethereum’s largest corporate holder, bought 138,452 ETH last week—about $435 million—raising its treasury to 3.86 million ETH. Chairman Thomas Lee cited the Fusaka upgrade and expectations of easing macro conditions as drivers of the accelerated buying.
BitMine frames its purchases as a strategic investment in Ethereum’s execution layer and scaling roadmap rather than short-term positioning. The intersection of institutional demand and improved P2P networking could shape sentiment around Ethereum’s next scaling phase, particularly amid ongoing debates over blockspace costs.
