Co-founder of Ethereum on L2 upgrades: 'Waiting a week to withdraw is simply far too long for people'

A report by AInvest in August 2025 indicates that Ethereum Layer-2 rollups still experience long withdrawal times. Optimistic rollups require up to seven days, while ZK rollups offer faster exits but rely on complex infrastructure. Buterin proposed reducing rollup withdrawal times to under one hour in the short term and near 12 seconds in the medium term, aiming to minimize bridge-related security risks.

Chorus One reports that the market for zk-proving technology—used in Ethereum scaling—was valued at $97 million in 2025 and is projected to grow to $1.34 billion by 2030. This growth is driven by increased adoption of ZK rollups for efficient transaction batching, cost savings, and privacy benefits. Ethereum’s push for rollup-centric scaling has directly supported the rise of these systems.

According to Cointelegraph, Buterin co-founded Ethereum in 2013 after publishing its white paper and has since led development on smart contract functionality, proof-of-stake transition, and Layer-2 scalability. In recent years, he has focused on advancing rollup architecture and reducing withdrawal latency to enhance Ethereum’s efficiency and security.

As outlined by Wikipedia, Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform launched in July 2015 by a group including Buterin. It aims to support smart contracts and decentralized applications. It operates as a global settlement layer and has become the foundation for L2 rollups, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), and protocol experimentation through its modular upgrade path.