SharpLink Gaming, a publicly listed sports and online casino marketing company, could soon become the largest holder of Ethereum.
SharpLink is buying “tens of millions of dollars” of Ethereum every day, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin said Tuesday. Lubin leads Consensys, an Ethereum software company, and is the chair of SharpLink’s board of directors.
At its current pace, SharpLink will soon surpass the Ethereum Foundation as the largest corporate holder of the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency.
The Foundation sits on a $725 million trove of the cryptocurrency. As of Thursday, SharpLink had $612 million.
“We are accumulating more and more consistently — we’re able to acquire tens of millions of dollars in Ether a day,” Lubin told CNBC.
A new playbook
It’s a sudden, massive bet on crypto. And it’s a bet that has become popular with small, publicly-traded companies.
SharpLink CEO Rob Phythian announced the company’s “expansion beyond our core business” in May.
The company sold about $425 million in stock to a group of investors that included Consensys and said it would use the money to purchase Ethereum, which would “serve as the Company’s primary treasury reserve asset.”
It’s a move that mirrors that of Strategy, a software company that has amassed $67 billion worth of Bitcoin since 2020.
In the four days following SharpLink’s announcement, its shares soared 2,700%, reaching a high of $124 on May 30.
But its price dropped in the following days. It crashed another 75% after submitting an SEC filing that allowed insiders to sell shares.
Lubin said on X in June that the filing was standard procedure and that neither he nor Consensys has sold any shares.
On Tuesday CNBC asked Lubin about the state of Ethereum and its underperformance relative to Bitcoin.
Lubin said he believes all of the activity on the internet will eventually migrate to blockchains and that Ethereum is best positioned to benefit.
The SharpLink strategy?
SharpLink raises money to purchase Ethereum by selling shares.
The company said on Tuesday it raised $64 million between June 28 and July 4, of which $37 million will be used to acquire additional Ethereum.
The Strategic ETH Reserve website tracks all entities holding more than 100 Ethereum. As of Thursday, 46 entities hold more than 1.3 million Ethereum worth over $3.6 billion.
The top five holders in descending order are the Ethereum Foundation, SharpLink, PulseChain, Coinbase, and the Golem Foundation.
After falling below $10 on June 13, SharpLink stock has since recovered to $18. Meanwhile, Ethereum hit $2,967 on Thursday, its highest value since early February.
