Ethereum has climbed 5.9% on the day to $3,155, amid a 20.1% jump over the past seven days as the craze for publicly traded companies stockpiling ETH continues.
The move has pushed Ethereum’s price to its highest level since the start of February, according to CoinGecko, resulting in $85.4 million worth of shorts being liquidated over the past 24 hours, per CoinGlass.
SharpLink Gaming acquired $225 million worth of Ethereum earlier this month, the company announced via a press release on Tuesday. The Minnesota company pivoted from online gambling marketing to stockpiling Ethereum in May, following a $425 million raise, with Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin joining SharpLink’s board of directors.
(Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt.)
It has since become the largest Ethereum treasury public company, with its latest acquisition bringing its total holdings to 280,000 ETH, or $884 million at its current price. As a result, its SBET stock has pumped more than 1,000% since before its crypto pivot, according to TradingView.
BitMine Immersion Technologies similarly announced last month that it will be creating an Ethereum treasury. The Bitcoin mining firm raised $250 million in late June to create its ETH stockpile, as Fundstrat’s Tom Lee joined as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Since then, the firm has acquired more than $500 million worth of Ethereum, while its BMNR stock has spiked more than 1,100% since its first ETH acquisition, per TradingView. On Tuesday, Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund bought a 9.1% stake in the company.
Bitcoin mining firm Bit Digital announced last month that it was winding down its mining operations to focus on “Ethereum-native treasury and staking strategies.” Last week, it shifted its entire treasury to Ethereum, accumulating 100,603 ETH—over $316 million at today’s price. Then on Monday, it announced the sale of $67.3 million worth of shares to purchase more Ethereum.
“Rather than just a speculative instrument, ETH is becoming a yield-bearing, programmable financial asset that institutions view as a store of value,” Kevin Rusher, founder of borrowing and lending ecosystem RAAC, said in a note shared with Decrypt. “This is a really important factor for ETH price, as treasury allocations reduce circulating supply and signal long-term confidence.
These are just three examples of a broader trend of public companies creating crypto treasury funds to pump their stock, drawing on the example of Michael Saylor’s Strategy. For example, Canadian firm Cannabis Sativa recently rebranded to Dogecoin Cash before acquiring $3.5 million worth of DOGE.
More recently, a group of investors announced it had acquired $540,000 worth of Solana meme coin Dogwifhat and intends to go public via reverse merger as a way to jump on the trend.
