ETH Reserve Company becomes a new favorite in the US stock market, reviewing the businesses and driving forces behind 4 star companies

2025-07-10 20:21:02

Collection

Ethereum reserves have become the new darling of the US stock market.

Recently, a noticeable trend is that people are starting to become bullish on Ethereum again.

From proclaiming "Ethereum is the oil of the digital age" to the slogan "ETH will rise to 10,000" appearing at EthCC… what else can revive ETH?

The answer to this question may not lie on-chain, but in the U.S. stock market.

As "Bitcoin reserves" become a new trend for publicly listed companies in the U.S., Ethereum reserves have become the new darling of the stock market.

For example, last week, SharpLink announced it had purchased another 7,689 ETH, making it the publicly listed company with the largest ETH reserves; yesterday, its stock price (SBET) also surged nearly 30%.

Meanwhile, BitMine (BMNR), a company focused on Bitcoin mining, recently announced a $250 million ETH asset reserve plan, intending to emulate MicroStrategy. The company's stock price has increased 16-fold in just one month, and its short-term wealth effect has even surpassed some Meme coins.

Additionally, another publicly listed Bitcoin mining company, Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), has followed a similar path, announcing on Tuesday a plan to raise $100 million to purchase ETH.

Upon the announcement, the company's stock price skyrocketed by 110%.

Even more aggressively, Bit Digital, which primarily focuses on Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking, has directly announced a full pivot to Ethereum and the sale of Bitcoin; yesterday, its stock BTBT briefly rose by about 20%.

These four companies are a microcosm of the recent U.S. stock market's enthusiastic embrace of the Ethereum narrative and are stars at the forefront of the capital market.

Speculative funds have limited attention, and the market often cannot remember more latecomers, so you can see them scrambling to make official announcements, seeking a clear stance and mental positioning.

We have also analyzed the similarities and differences in the business and underlying resources of these companies to provide some reference for players who are more focused on the correlation between cryptocurrencies and stocks.

Different Businesses, But All Seeking Profitability

SharpLink (SBET), BitMine (BMNR), Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), and Bit Digital (BTBT) are all betting on ETH, and the surge in their stock prices is backed by their respective business logic.

SharpLink (SBET): From Gambling to Gambling

SharpLink Gaming (SBET) primarily operates online sports betting. It also collaborates with sports media companies to help them formulate strategies, products, and innovative solutions.

However, in 2024, the company's revenue was only $3.66 million, a year-on-year drop of 26%; it also achieved profitability that year by selling part of its business.

Before the transformation, SBET had a market capitalization of about $10 million, with its stock price hovering near the delisting threshold (below $1), and shareholder equity of less than $2.5 million, facing compliance pressure. Its traditional business had limited growth, making it difficult to break through in the fiercely competitive betting industry.

In May 2025, SBET raised $425 million in a private placement to buy ETH, currently holding 205,634 ETH (as of July 9).

The large-scale financing to acquire ETH has also made it one of the largest publicly traded holders of ETH globally, second only to the Ethereum Foundation.

Public information shows that over 95% of SBET's ETH is deployed in liquid staking protocols, and it has currently earned staking rewards of 322 ETH.

The cash flow generated from staking can indeed have a positive impact on optimizing the balance sheet, but more importantly, this strategy not only optimizes the financial structure but also transforms SBET from a struggling small company on the brink of delisting into a "crypto concept stock" favored by the capital market.

Against the backdrop of bottlenecks in its main business and the Ethereum ETF craze, SBET's transformation seems more like a gamble, and its high ETH proportion makes it very susceptible to price fluctuations, as ETH tends to drop more sharply than BTC.

BitMine (BMNR): From BTC Mining to ETH Vault

As the name suggests, BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) is a Bitcoin mining company that relies on immersion cooling technology to mine blockchain in Texas and Trinidad.

Through its own mining and hosting third-party equipment, BMNR generates Bitcoin revenue.

In the first quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue of $3.31 million, but high energy consumption and low profit margins (with a net loss of $3.29 million in 2024) made it difficult to operate. Before the transformation, BMNR had a market capitalization of only $26 million, and its mining business was constrained by high costs and fierce competition, leaving limited growth potential.

On June 30, the company announced a private placement to raise funds, planning to purchase about 95,000 ETH, although the actual holding amount has not been disclosed. However, after the announcement, BMNR's stock price soared from $4.50 to $111.50, skyrocketing 3000% since June.

At the same time, the rise in stock price has also boosted BitMine's market capitalization, which is currently around $5.7 billion. Unlike SBET, BitMine still retains its original BTC mining business, making its ETH reserve strategy appear more like a short-term narrative.

Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS): Old Business with a New Twist

BTCS differs from the previous two companies in that its ETH reserves are well-grounded in its historical business.

The company focuses on blockchain infrastructure and was founded in 2014, being one of the early blockchain companies listed on NASDAQ. Its core business focuses on the operation of Ethereum and other proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks, with main operations including running Ethereum nodes and providing data analysis platform ChainQ, offering staking and data services for DeFi and enterprises.

However, similarly, the company's financial performance has been poor.

In 2024, BTCS reported revenue of about $2.6 million, a year-on-year decrease of 12%, mainly due to high node operation costs and intensified market competition. The net loss reached $5.8 million, falling into a financial predicament of high investment and low returns.

BTCS has held ETH and operated validator nodes since 2021, accumulating 14,600 ETH, well ahead of the ETH reserve plans of the aforementioned two listed companies; in June-July of this year, BTCS accelerated its ETH accumulation through AAVE DeFi lending and traditional financing, and on July 8, it announced a plan to raise $100 million to further expand its ETH holdings.

Objectively speaking, increasing ETH holdings can enhance the staking capacity of BTCS's validator nodes, improving gas fee income and market competitiveness. The market has also responded positively, with this announcement causing BTCS's stock price to surge over 100% in a single day, rising from $2.50 to $5.25.

Bit Digital (BTBT): Selling BTC, Fully Transitioning to ETH

Bit Digital, Inc. (BTBT) is a blockchain technology company headquartered in New York, founded in 2015. Initially focused on Bitcoin (BTC) mining, it has gradually laid out Ethereum staking infrastructure since 2022, along with GPU cloud computing and asset management services.

Similarly, the company has also faced financial losses; its financial report shows that in the first quarter of 2025, revenue was $25.1 million, with an adjusted loss of around $44.5 million.

In July 2025, the company raised $172 million through a public offering and sold 280 BTC, increasing its ETH holdings to 100,603 (approximately $264 million), with ETH accounting for 60% of its assets, making it the second-largest holder of ETH after SharpLink.

Clearly, these four companies share characteristics of poor financial conditions and low market capitalization, resembling some low-market-value protocols in the crypto market that have no revenue, quickly rising after gaining narrative and attention.

Key Drivers Behind the Transformation

David Hoffman, founder of Bankless, had a profound insight into the phenomenon of ETH reserves in a recent article:

"The strategy is simple: incorporate ETH into the balance sheet, then market ETH to Wall Street… Ethereum itself has many narrative highlights; what ETH needs is a sufficiently vibrant person to excite Wall Street."

Connections and resources link the crypto narrative to traditional capital markets. From crypto tycoons to investment banking giants, these four companies also have different key figures behind them.

SharpLink: Ethereum Co-Founder and His Crypto Team

From the brink of delisting to becoming the largest holder of ETH, it is inseparable from the maneuvering of Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin.

As the founder and CEO of ConsenSys, Lubin oversees important infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as the MetaMask wallet and Infura (the latter handles over 50% of Ethereum transactions).

In May 2025, Lubin joined the SBET board as chairman, personally promoting the $463 million financing. This is also closely related to crypto VCs who have previously invested in various projects within the Ethereum ecosystem:

His own ConsenSys led the $425 million private placement for SBET, in collaboration with ParaFi Capital (a top DeFi venture capital firm that invested in Uniswap and Aave), Pantera Capital (an early investor in Ethereum, managing over $5 billion), and Galaxy Digital (managing Ethereum ETFs), among others.

Despite community skepticism that this is a conspiracy by the Ethereum Foundation, Lubin's connections and ConsenSys's resources undoubtedly give SBET the ability to become a pioneer in the Wall Streetization of Ethereum.

BitMine: Thomas Lee and Silicon Valley VC Connections

Thomas Lee, a well-known strategist on Wall Street and co-founder of Fundstrat, is known for his accurate predictions and is the driving force behind BitMine (BMNR)'s ETH reserve strategy.

Lee has been bullish on Bitcoin since 2017 and predicted in 2024 that ETH would reach $5,000-$6,000. In June 2025, he announced his appointment as chairman of BMNR's board.

In an interview, he mentioned the reason for betting on Ethereum:

"Simply put, the real reason I chose Ethereum is that stablecoins are exploding. Circle is one of the best IPOs in five years, with a 100x EBITDA valuation, bringing excellent performance to some funds… Stablecoins are the ChatGPT of the crypto world, entering the mainstream, and are evidence of Wall Street's attempt to 'equityize' tokens. Meanwhile, the crypto circle is 'tokenizing' equity, such as the dollar being tokenized."

He also stated on CNBC that BMNR would become "the MicroStrategy of Ethereum."

In the $250 million fundraising plan proposed by Lee, we also see the involvement of the well-known Silicon Valley VC Founders Fund, founded by Peter Thiel, which has invested in SpaceX, Palantir, and has heavily invested in crypto since 2021, including Ethereum, Solana, and the Bullish Group, which also acquired CoinDesk.

Additionally, crypto-native institutions such as Pantera, FalconX, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and DCG are also involved.

Bit Digital: CEO Was an Advisor to Bitfinex

Samir Tabar is the helm of Bit Digital (BTBT)'s ETH reserve strategy, and he has a cross-border experience from Wall Street to the crypto world.

Tabar previously served as the head of capital markets at Merrill Lynch and was a strategic advisor to Bitfinex from 2017 to 2018, optimizing the trading process of USDT on the Ethereum network, and joined Bit Digital in 2021.

In a CNBC interview, Tabar referred to Ethereum as a "blue-chip asset that is reshaping the financial system," emphasizing its enormous potential in stablecoins and DeFi applications. His traditional finance background and crypto experience provide more credibility for Bit Digital's transformation, and his "blue-chip asset" remarks resonate with the narrative of revitalizing Ethereum.

In June 2025, Bit Digital raised $172 million through an ATM issuance to purchase ETH; major investors included BlackRock and the investment bank underwriter H.C. Wainwright, which has previously provided financing support to Bit Digital multiple times and reaffirmed BTBT as a "buy" rating in 2025, with a target price of $5-7.

BTCS: Smart Use of AAVE Lending to Acquire ETH

Compared to the previous three, BTCS's CEO Charles Allen is relatively low-key.

However, he is also a veteran in the crypto industry, with his blockchain experience beginning with Bitcoin investments in 2011, transitioning to Ethereum in 2014, and promoting BTCS to become the first blockchain company listed on NASDAQ in 2016.

In June 2025, he led BTCS to acquire 1,000 ETH through a $2.5 million loan from AAVE, and in July 2025, the company plans to raise $100 million, with investors including ATW Partners and H.C. Wainwright, the former being a hybrid venture capital/private equity firm based in New York that invests in both debt and equity.

From these four companies, we can see a commonality:

Each company has core figures related to the crypto circle, and there is overlap in the fundraising targets of different companies.

Crypto funds and traditional funds that have previously invested in Ethereum are also behind the ETH reserve craze; the capital network of the Ethereum ecosystem is extensive, which may also be another testament to the robustness of the Ethereum network itself.

Money never sleeps. As ETH reserve companies become the new Meme stocks of 2025, businesses undergoing transformation will inevitably create wealth for a wave of people. Currently, this feast of cryptocurrencies and stocks has not yet reached its end.