In brief
- SharpLink Gaming, an online gambling marketer, has raised $425 million to buy Ethereum for its treasury.
- Blockchain technology firm Consensys led the raise, and Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin will lead the company’s board.
- The company’s stock is up 420% on the day, as of this writing, following the announcement.
Publicly traded company SharpLink Gaming has raked in $425 million in a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, offering to establish an Ethereum treasury—a move that has boosted its stock price more than 400% so far Tuesday.
The online gambling marketer’s raise was led by blockchain technology firm Consensys, with participation from Galaxy Digital, ParaFi Capital, Ondo, and Pantera Capital, among other investors, SharpLink Gaming said Tuesday in a statement. The group bought 69,100,313 of the firm’s shares at $6.15 each. (Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt.)
The newly raised funds will go toward acquiring Ethereum, which will serve as the company’s primary treasury asset—a move that emulates the playbook of Michael Saylor’s software company, Strategy, which has amassed $64 billion worth of Bitcoin since 2020 and inspired a growing list of crypto-stashing followers.
SharpLink Gaming’s private equity deal is expected to close on May 29. Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin will serve as chairman of SharpLink Gaming’s board of directors.
“This is a significant milestone in SharpLink’s journey and marks an expansion beyond our core business. On closing, we look forward to working with Consensys and welcoming Joseph to the Board,” said Rob Phythian, founder and CEO of SharpLink, in a statement.
SharpLink Gaming shares are trading at $35 as of writing time, soaring 420% in the past day. The price of the Nasdaq-listed SBET rose as high as $53.45 earlier Tuesday.
SharpLink Gaming did not disclose how much Ethereum it aims to acquire. The firm did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on the matter.
Consensys told Decrypt that it cannot speak about the deal until it is finalized.
The marketing company’s corporate strategy overhaul comes as a growing number of companies have taken after Strategy’s cryptocurrency-centered playbook over the past few years. Medical device company Semler Scientific and Japanese investment firm Metaplanet began employing aggressive Bitcoin-based strategies in 2024, for example, with many other firms similarly following the Strategy model.
Meanwhile, Upexi and DeFi Development Corp. (formerly Janover) have raised millions of dollars for acquiring Solana for their respective corporate treasuries over the past few months, and Canadian firm Spirit is gunning to become the “Strategy of Dogecoin.”
The announcement comes after a recent surge in Ethereum’s price following months of declines, with ETH even falling as Bitcoin continued to push to new highs earlier this year. Ethereum has faced an identity crisis amid other concerns from developers and community members, with the Ethereum Foundation recently undergoing leadership changes as a result.
The layer-1 network’s token was trading at $2,700 as of writing time, up over 6% on the day and 50% over the past month—though it’s down 31% over the past 12 months.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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