In brief
- SharpLink now owns 280,000 Ethereum worth $846 million.
- The company began purchasing Ethereum just over a month ago.
- Ethereum co-founder and SharpLink Chair Joe Lubin described buying pressure as an “industrial shop vacuum” on X.
SharpLink Gaming acquired $225 million worth of Ethereum earlier this month, the company said in a press release on Tuesday, adding to its industry-leading holdings.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based firm now said it now owns roughly 280,000 Ethereum worth $846 million. The company first purchased the asset just over a month ago.
As of Tuesday, the Ethereum Foundation owned around 217,500 Ethereum worth $655 million across several networks, according to crypto analytics platform Arkham Intelligence. The platform shows at least 17 entities holding more Ethereum than SharpLink, but they include smart contracts and exchanges that may not own the Ethereum they control.
SharpLink shares spiked 3.6% to $24.76 on Tuesday, according to Yahoo Finance. As Ethereum’s price has climbed above the $3,000 mark, SharpLink’s stock price has soared more than 160% over the past month, mirroring the gains of some other Ethereum treasury firms.
Most crypto treasury firms seek to maximize shareholder value by growing the amount of digital assets they own per fully diluted share. Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor pioneered a Bitcoin-buying playbook that many firms have sought to emulate this year, but SharpLink’s strategy is aimed at leveraging Ethereum’s relatively distinct qualities.
This month, SharpLink said that it has so far earned approximately 94 Ethereum worth $283,000 through staking rewards, for example. Over 99% of the company’s ETH holdings are allocated to protocols that let it participate in the process of validating Ethereum transactions.
SharpLink said that it also raised $413 million in proceeds from the sale of 24 million common shares, while holding $257 million in cash that has yet to be devoted to the asset.
The company noted that the amount of Ethereum it holds for every 1,000 assumed diluted shares outstanding, or SharpLink’s “ETH concentration,” has increased to 2.46 Ethereum from 2 Ethereum, a 23% increase compared to 32 days ago.
The company’s stock plunged last month moments after a registration-of-shares filing became effective, similar to Solana treasury firm Upexi. SharpLink shares had soared as high as $124 before the collapse, which stemmed from institutions’ profit-taking.
On X, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, who chairs SharpLink’s board, described buying pressure from other Ethereum treasury firms as an “industrial shop vacuum” mopping up Ethereum’s excess supply so “supply-demand dynamics are tightly balanced.”
On Monday, Bitcoin miner BitMine said that it had recently raised $250 million through a private placement to buy Ethereum. The company’s board is being led by Fundstrat Global Advisors Managing Partner and Head of Research Tom Lee.
“Count me as a member,” Lee said on X on Monday, responding to a metaphorical hat tip from Lubin, who called himself a “self-appointed representative of The League of Extraordinary ETH Accumulator Gentlemen.”
(Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt.)
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