Original Title: "ETH Reserve Companies Become New Darling of the Stock Market, Inventory of 4 Star Enterprises and Their Drivers"

Original Source: TechFlow by DeepTech

A recent and obvious trend is that everyone is once again looking bullish on Ethereum. From proclaiming "Ethereum is the oil of the digital age" to the slogan "ETH to hit 10,000" at EthCC... What else can revitalize ETH?

The answer to this question may not lie on-chain but in the stock market. With "Bitcoin reserves" becoming a trend among publicly traded companies, Ethereum reserve has now become the new darling of the stock market.

For example, last week, SharpLink announced the purchase of an additional 7,689 ETH, making it the publicly traded company with the largest ETH reserve; yesterday, its stock price (SBET) also surged by nearly 30%; and BitMine, a mining company focused on Bitcoin mining, recently announced the launch of a $250 million ETH asset reserve plan, intending to emulate MicroStrategy. The company's stock price has increased 16-fold in one month, with the short-term wealth effect even surpassing some meme coins.

In addition, another publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), has followed a similar path, announcing on Tuesday a plan to raise $100 million for purchasing ETH. Upon the news, the company's stock price skyrocketed by 110%. Even more aggressively, Bit Digital, whose main business is Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking, directly announced a full shift to Ethereum by selling Bitcoin; yesterday, its stock BTBT surged by about 20% intraday.

These four companies are a microcosm of the recent bullish narrative in the stock market towards Ethereum and are the stars at the forefront of the capital market trend. Speculative capital has limited attention span, and the market often forgets about latecomers, so you can see them racing to make official announcements, all for a clear stance and mental positioning. We also summarized the differences and similarities in the business and underlying resources of these companies, providing some reference for more players focusing on the coin-stock linkage.

Different Businesses, but All Seeking Turnaround to Profit

SharpLink (SBET), BitMine (BMNR), Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), and Bit Digital (BTBT) are four companies eagerly betting on ETH, with their stock prices soaring due to their respective business logics.

SharpLink (SBET): From Gambling to Betting

SharpLink Gaming (SBET) specializes in online sports betting. It also partners with sports media companies to help them develop strategies, products, and innovative solutions. However, in 2024, the company's revenue was only $3.66 million, a 26% year-over-year decrease; it was only able to turn a profit that year by selling off part of its business.

Prior to its transformation, SBET had a market capitalization of around $10 million, with its stock price hovering near delisting levels (below $1), shareholder equity of less than $2.5 million, and facing compliance pressures. Its traditional business had limited growth potential and struggled to stand out in the competitive gambling industry. In May 2025, SBET made a wild $425 million private placement purchase of ETH, currently holding 205,634 ETH (as of July 9).

The large-scale financing to acquire ETH has made it one of the world's largest publicly traded ETH holders, second only to the Ethereum Foundation. Publicly available data shows that over 95% of SBET's ETH is deployed in a liquidity staking protocol, currently earning staking rewards of 322 ETH. While the cash flow generated through staking can indeed have a positive impact on optimizing the balance sheet, the more significant aspect is that this strategy not only optimizes the financial structure but also transforms SBET from a struggling company on the brink of delisting into a "crypto concept stock" embraced by the capital markets.

Against the backdrop of bottlenecks in its core business and the Ethereum ETF frenzy, SBET's transformation looks more like a high-stakes gamble. Its high ETH concentration also makes it highly susceptible to price fluctuations, as ETH tends to be much more volatile than BTC.

BitMine (BMNR): From BTC Mining Farm to ETH Treasury

From its name, it is evident that BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) is a Bitcoin mining company that mines blocks of the blockchain in Texas and Trinidad using immersion cooling technology. Through its self-mining operations and hosting third-party equipment, BMNR generates Bitcoin revenue.

In the first quarter of 2025, the company had revenue of $3.31 million, but high energy consumption and low profitability (a net loss of $3.29 million in 2024) made its journey challenging. Prior to its transformation, BMNR had a market capitalization of only $26 million, and its mining business was constrained by high costs and intense competition, with limited room for growth. On June 30, the company announced a private placement fundraising round to purchase approximately 95,000 ETH, though the actual holdings have not been disclosed. However, following the announcement, BMNR's stock price surged from $4.50 to $111.50, a 3000% increase since June.

Meanwhile, the rising stock price has also pushed up BitMine's market capitalization, currently around 5.7 billion US dollars. Unlike SBET, BitMine has retained its original BTC mining business, making the shift to ETH reserves seem more like a short-term narrative.

Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS): Old Strategy in New Packaging, Narrative Aligned with Business

Unlike the two companies mentioned above, BTCS has a solid historical basis for holding ETH reserves. The company focuses on blockchain infrastructure, was founded in 2014, and is one of the early blockchain companies listed on Nasdaq. Its core business focuses on operating Ethereum nodes and providing a data analytics platform called ChainQ, offering staking and data services to DeFi and enterprises.

However, similarly, the company's financial performance has been poor. In 2024, BTCS had revenue of approximately 2.6 million US dollars, a 12% year-on-year decrease, mainly due to high node operation costs and increased market competition. The net loss reached 5.8 million US dollars, leading to a financial crisis of high investment and low returns.

Since 2021, BTCS has been holding ETH and running validator nodes, accumulating 14,600 ETH, much earlier than the ETH reserve plans of the two aforementioned public companies. From June to July this year, BTCS accelerated its ETH accumulation through AAVE DeFi lending and traditional financing. On July 8, they announced a $100 million fundraising plan to further expand their ETH holdings.

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

Bit Digital (BTBT): Selling BTC, Complete Shift to ETH

Bit Digital, Inc. (BTBT) is a blockchain technology company headquartered in New York, USA, founded in 2015. Initially focused on Bitcoin (BTC) mining, it began gradually expanding into Ethereum staking infrastructure in 2022, in addition to GPU cloud computing power and asset management services. Similarly, the company has experienced losses in its financials. The financial report for the first quarter of 2025 shows revenue of $25.1 million, with a net loss of around $44.5 million after accounting adjustments.

In July 2025, the company conducted a $172 million public offering and sold 280 BTC, increasing its ETH holdings to 100,603 coins (approximately $264 million). ETH accounted for 60% of the assets, making it the second-largest holder of ETH behind SharpLink. Clearly, all four companies share the characteristics of poor financial conditions and low market capitalization, similar to some income-less low-cap protocols in the crypto market, quickly pumping after gaining narrative and attention.

The Key Drivers Behind the Transformation

Bankless founder David Hoffman provided a profound insight into the ETH reserve phenomenon in a recent article: "The strategy is simple: put ETH on the balance sheet, then shill it to Wall Street ... Ethereum itself has many narrative highlights, all ETH needs is a lively enough person to get Wall Street excited." Connections and resources are linking the crypto narrative into the traditional capital market. From crypto whales to investment banking giants, these four companies also have different key figures behind them.

SharpLink: Ethereum Cofounder and His Crypto Crew

From the brink of delisting to the largest ETH holder, this journey is inseparable from Ethereum's co-founder Joseph Lubin's maneuvers. As the founder and CEO of ConsenSys, Lubin oversees critical infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as the MetaMask wallet and Infura (which processes over 50% of Ethereum transactions).

In May 2025, Lubin joined the SBET board, serving as chairman, personally driving a $463 million financing round. This move is closely tied to the various crypto VCs who have previously invested in Ethereum ecosystem projects: his own ConsenSys led a $425 million private placement for SBET, joined by ParaFi Capital (a top DeFi investor, backing Uniswap, Aave), Pantera Capital (early Ethereum investors, managing over $5 billion in assets), and Galaxy Digital (managing Ethereum ETF), among many other institutions.

Although there has been community skepticism about this being an Ethereum Foundation conspiracy, Lubin's connections and ConsenSys' resources undoubtedly give SBET the capability to become a pioneer in Ethereum's Wall Street-ification.

BitMine: The Collaboration Between Thomas Lee and Silicon Valley VCs

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

Lee has been bullish on Bitcoin since 2017, predicted ETH to reach $5000-6000 by 2024, and in June 2025, announced his appointment as the Chairman of the BMNR board.

In an interview, he once mentioned the reason for betting on Ethereum: "Simply put, the real reason I chose Ethereum is because stablecoins are booming. Circle had one of the best IPOs in five years, with a 100 times EBITDA P/E ratio, bringing great performance to some funds... Stablecoins are like ChatGPT entering the mainstream of the crypto world, evidence of Wall Street's attempt to tokenize equities. While the crypto community is 'tokenizing' equities, such as tokenizing the US dollar."

Furthermore, he stated on CNBC that BMNR would become the "MicroStrategy of Ethereum." In the $250 million fundraising plan proposed by Lee, we also see the prominent Silicon Valley VC Founders Fund's involvement, founded by Peter Thiel, known for investments in SpaceX, Palantir, and starting in 2021, heavily investing in crypto, including Ethereum, Solana, and the Bullish group, which also acquired CoinDesk.

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

Bit Digital: CEO Formerly Advised Bitfinex

Samir Tabar is at the helm of Bit Digital's (BTBT) ETH reserve strategy, bringing his experience from Wall Street to the crypto world.

Tabar previously served as the Head of Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch, was a strategic advisor at Bitfinex from 2017 to 2018, optimizing USDT's transaction processes on the Ethereum network, and joined Bit Digital in 2021. In a CNBC interview, Tabar referred to Ethereum as the "blue-chip asset reshaping the financial system," emphasizing its significant potential in stablecoins and DeFi applications. His combination of traditional financial background and crypto experience adds more credibility to Bit Digital's transformation, and his "blue-chip asset" statement aligns with the narrative of revitalizing Ethereum.

In June 2025, Bit Digital raised $172 million through a public offering (ATM issuance) to purchase ETH; major backers included BlackRock and investment bank underwriter H.C. Wainwright, with the latter having provided financing support to Bit Digital multiple times. In 2025, it reiterated a "Buy" rating for BTBT with a target price of $5-7.

BTCS: Leveraging AAVE Lending to Acquire ETH

Compared to the previous three, BTCS CEO Charles Allen is relatively low-key. However, he is also a veteran of the crypto industry, with his blockchain experience starting with Bitcoin investment in 2011, shifting to Ethereum in 2014, and in 2016, driving BTCS to become the first Nasdaq-listed blockchain company.

In June 2025, he led BTCS to borrow $2.5 million through AAVE to purchase 1,000 ETH, with plans to raise $100 million in July 2025. Backers also include ATW Partners and H.C. Wainwright, with the former being a New York-based hybrid venture capital/private equity firm that invests in both debt and equity.

From these four companies, we can see a commonality: each company has key figures associated with the crypto community, and the fundraising targets of different companies also overlap. Crypto funds, traditional funds that have previously invested in Ethereum, are also behind the ETH reserve frenzy; the Ethereum ecosystem's capital network has wide-reaching tentacles, perhaps another testament to the network's robustness.

Money never sleeps. As ETH reserve companies become the new Meme stock of 2025, enterprises in transition are bound to create a wave of wealth. As of now, this coin stock feast is far from over.

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