
Ethereum’s long-term scalability goals just got a huge potential boost, courtesy of a recent proposal from the network’s founder, Vitalik Buterin. Most recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a full rearchitecture of Ethereum’s execution layer, which would increase some ZK proof creation efficiencies by orders of magnitude. Currently, institutions are more interested than ever in crypto markets. Of particular interest to them is Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana. Together with the proposal, this institutional interest represents a turning point in Ethereum’s technical development and market position.
Ethereum's Scalability Bottleneck
At the moment, Ethereum’s ZK proof generation is proving to be a chokehold on its scalability dreams. ZK proofs are potential environment-improving, efficiency-driving cryptographic marvels. They help one side prove the truth of a statement while shrouding all other relevant information in secrecy.
ToozSo Buterin’s plan is to replace the current Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with a new system that is based on RISC-V. This architecture is a completely free and open RISC-ish instruction set. This new proprietary system unites a new, super-efficient RISC-V engine with Poseidon hashing algorithms. Ethereum’s transition to PoS is widely anticipated to be a game changer for Ethereum’s overall scalability.
Efficiency Gains with New System
This new proposed system would be up to 100 times faster than Ethereum’s existing ecosystem. It’s already poised to deliver 50–100-fold efficiency gains to zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs’ proof construction. That upgrade would reduce prover costs and complexity by an order of magnitude. Buterin first floated the idea on Ethereum Magicians, a forum for Ethereum’s ongoing research and development.
Institutional Interest in Crypto
Recent market activity indicates a surge in institutional interest in crypto assets. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs specifically enjoyed a record $380 million in net inflows on April 21. Canadian regulators have formally approved four new Solana staking ETFs from 3iQ, Purpose, Evolve, and CI Financial. Notably, these Solana ETFs will permit institutions to delegate up to 50% of the ETF’s SOL holdings to staking partners. BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC have been the top two ETFs by trading volume. This jump is a testament to the growing role that institutions have come to play in the market.

Nguyen Thi Hanh
Cryptocurrency Writer
Nguyen Thi Hanh channels progressive, pragmatic views into high-energy, approachable crypto journalism, delivering confident, animated articles with regional and global relevance. Her optimistic, party-going spirit helps translate complex blockchain ideas into viral, visually engaging stories. Outside of writing, she enjoys urban food adventures and organizing community hackathons.