Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
Recently, there has been a clear trend of renewed bullish sentiment towards Ethereum.
From shouting 'Ethereum is the oil of the digital age' to the slogan 'Ethereum will rise to 10,000' appearing at EthCC... what else can revive Ethereum?
The answer to this question may not be on-chain, but in the U.S. stock market.
As 'Bitcoin reserves' become the new trend for publicly listed companies in the U.S., Ethereum reserves have become the new favorites in the U.S. stock market.
For example, last week, SharpLink announced it had purchased 7,689 ETH again, making it the publicly traded company with the largest Ethereum reserves; yesterday, its stock price (SBET) also rose nearly 30%;
Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining company BitMine (BMNR), which focuses on Bitcoin mining, recently announced a $250 million Ethereum asset reserve plan, intending to emulate MicroStrategy. The company's stock price has increased 16 times in just one month, and the short-term wealth effect has even surpassed some meme coins.
Additionally, another publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), also followed a similar path, announcing plans on Tuesday to raise $100 million to purchase ETH.
As soon as the news broke, the company's stock price skyrocketed by 110%.
There is also the more aggressive Bit Digital, whose main business is Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking, which directly announced a full pivot to Ethereum and the sale of Bitcoin. Yesterday, its stock BTBT briefly rose about 20%.
These four companies are a microcosm of the recent aggressive embrace of Ethereum narratives in the U.S. stock market, standing at the forefront of the capital market.
Speculative funds have limited attention, and the market often fails to remember more latecomers, so you can see them rushing to make official announcements, seeking a clear stance and mental positioning.
We also analyzed the similarities and differences among these companies in terms of their business and underlying resources, providing some references for players who pay more attention to the correlation between crypto and stocks.
Different businesses, but all seeking to turn losses into profits.
SharpLink (SBET), BitMine (BMNR), Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS), and Bit Digital (BTBT) are four companies competing to invest in ETH, each having its own business logic behind their stock price surges.
SharpLink (SBET): Coming from gambling, going back to gambling.
SharpLink Gaming (SBET) focuses on online sports betting. It also collaborates with sports media companies to help formulate strategies, products, and innovative solutions.
However, in 2024, the company's revenue was only $3.66 million, a year-over-year drop of 26%; that year it also managed to turn a profit by selling off some of its business.
Before its transformation, SBET had a market cap of about $10 million, with its stock price hovering on the edge of delisting (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 gambling industry.
In May 2025, SBET purchased ETH for $425 million through a private placement and currently holds 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 Ethereum in the world, second only to the Ethereum Foundation.
Public data shows that over 95% of SBET's Ethereum has been deployed in liquidity staking protocols, and it has currently obtained staking rewards of 322 Ethereum.
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' that capital markets chase after.
Against the backdrop of bottlenecks in the main business and the Ethereum ETF craze, SBET's transformation resembles a gamble. Its high proportion of Ethereum also makes it extremely susceptible to price fluctuations, after all, Ethereum tends to drop more sharply than BTC.
BitMine (BMNR): From BTC mining to Ethereum treasury.
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.
BMNR generates Bitcoin revenue through its own mining and by hosting third-party equipment.
In the first quarter of 2025, the company had 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 struggle. Before its transformation, BMNR had a market cap of only $26 million, and its mining business was constrained by high costs and fierce competition, leaving limited room for growth.
On June 30, the company announced a private fundraising plan to purchase about 95,000 ETH, but the actual holdings have not yet been disclosed. However, after the news was announced, BMNR's stock price soared from $4.50 to $111.50, rising 3,000% since June.
At the same time, the rise in stock price has also boosted BitMine's market cap, which is currently about $5.7 billion. Unlike SBET, BitMine still retains its original BTC mining business, making its Ethereum reserve strategy seem more like a short-term narrative.
Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS): Old but rejuvenated, the narrative aligns with the business.
BTCS is different from the two companies above; its reserve of Ethereum stands on solid historical business foundations.
The company focuses on blockchain infrastructure and was founded in 2014, being one of the early blockchain firms listed on NASDAQ. Its core business focuses on operating infrastructure for 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.
But similarly, the company's financial performance is poor.
In 2024, BTCS's revenue was approximately $2.6 million, a 12% decrease from the same period last year, mainly due to high node operating costs and intensified market competition. The net loss reached $5.8 million, falling into a financial dilemma of high investment and low returns.
Since 2021, BTCS has held Ethereum and operated validator nodes, accumulating 14,600 ETH, well ahead of the aforementioned two listed companies' Ethereum reserve plans; in June-July this year, BTCS accelerated its Ethereum accumulation through AAVE DeFi lending and traditional financing plans, and on July 8, expanded its announcement to further accelerate Ethereum accumulation through AAVE DeFi lending and traditional financing plans.
Objectively speaking, increasing Ethereum holdings can enhance BTCS's staking capacity in its main business of validator nodes, boosting gas fee revenue and market competitiveness. The market has also recognized this, as this announcement caused BTCS's stock price to skyrocket over 100% in a single day, rising from $2.50 to $5.25.
Bit Digital (BTBT): Selling BTC, fully pivoting 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 gradually laid out Ethereum staking infrastructure starting in 2022, and also has businesses in GPU cloud computing and asset management services.
Similarly, the company has also fallen into financial losses. Financial reports show that in the first quarter of 2025, revenue was $25.1 million, with an adjusted accounting loss of about $44.5 million.
In July 2025, the company increased its Ethereum holdings to 100,603 (approximately $264 million) through a public offering of $172 million and the sale of 280 BTC, with Ethereum making up 60% of its assets, making it the second-largest company in terms of Ethereum holdings after SharpLink.
Clearly, all four companies share characteristics of poor financial status and low market capitalization, similar to some low-market-value agreements 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, provided profound insights into the phenomenon of Ethereum reserves in a recent article:
The strategy is simple: incorporate Ethereum into the balance sheet, and then market Ethereum to Wall Street... Ethereum itself has many narrative highlights; what Ethereum needs is a sufficiently vibrant person who can excite Wall Street.
Connections and resources link the crypto narrative to traditional capital markets. From crypto bigwigs 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 the largest holder of Ethereum, this transformation cannot be separated from the influence 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 SBET's board as chairman, personally driving a $463 million financing. This is also closely linked to crypto VCs that have previously invested in various projects within the Ethereum ecosystem.
His own ConsenSys led a $425 million private placement for SBET, collaborating with ParaFi Capital (a top venture capital firm in the DeFi space, investing in Uniswap and Aave), Pantera Capital (an early investor in Ethereum, managing over $5 billion), and Galaxy Digital (which manages Ethereum investments).
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 Ethereum's Wall Street integration.
BitMine: The connection between Thomas Lee and Silicon Valley VCs.
Thomas Lee, a well-known strategist on Wall Street and co-founder of Fundstrat, is famous for his accurate predictions and is the mastermind behind BitMine (BMNR)'s Ethereum reserve strategy.
Lee has been bullish on Bitcoin since 2017, predicting that Ethereum will reach $5,000-$6,000 in 2024 and announcing his appointment as chairman of BMNR's board in June 2025.
In an interview, he mentioned the reasons for betting on Ethereum:
To put it simply, the real reason I chose Ethereum is that stablecoins are exploding. Circle is one of the best IPOs in five years, with a 100x EV/EBITDA ratio, bringing very good performance to some funds... Stablecoins are the ChatGPT of the crypto world, having entered the mainstream, evidence of Wall Street's attempt to 'equity tokenize.' Meanwhile, the crypto world is 'tokenizing' equity, like the dollar being tokenized.
At the same time, he stated on CNBC that BMNR would become the 'MicroStrategy of Ethereum.'
In the $250 million fundraising plan proposed by Lee, we also saw the presence of the well-known Silicon Valley VC Founders Fund, founded by Peter Thiel, which has invested in SpaceX and Palantir, and has heavily invested in cryptocurrencies since 2021, 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: The CEO was once an advisor to Bitfinex.
Samir Tabar is the captain of Bit Digital (BTBT)'s Ethereum reserve strategy, with cross-border experience from Wall Street to the crypto world.
Tabar previously served as the head of capital markets at Merrill Lynch, acted as a strategic advisor to Bitfinex from 2017 to 2018, optimizing the transaction process of USDT on the Ethereum network, and joined Bit Digital in 2021.
Tabar referred to Ethereum as a 'blue-chip asset reshaping the financial system' in an interview with CNBC, emphasizing its huge potential in stablecoins and DeFi applications. The traditional financial background and crypto experience provide more credibility for Bit Digital's transformation, and its 'blue-chip asset' statement aligns with the narrative of reviving Ethereum.
In June 2025, Bit Digital raised $172 million through a public offering (ATM issuance) to purchase ETH; major investors include BlackRock and investment bank underwriter HC Wainwright, which has provided financing support to Bit Digital multiple times, reaffirming BTBT as a 'buy' rating with a target price of $5-7 in 2025.
BTCS: Actively using AAVE lending to purchase 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 in 2011 with Bitcoin investments, shifting focus 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 borrow $2.5 million through AAVE to purchase 1,000 Ethereum. In July 2025, plans were made to raise $100 million, with investors including ATW Partners and HC Wainwright, the former being a mixed venture capital/private equity firm based in New York that invests in both debt and equity.
The commonality we can see among these four companies is:
Each company has core figures related to the crypto space, and there are overlaps in their fundraising targets.
Crypto funds and traditional funds that have invested in Ethereum are also behind the Ethereum reserve craze; the capital network of the Ethereum ecosystem is extensive, perhaps a testament to the robustness of the Ethereum network itself.
Money never sleeps. As Ethereum reserve companies become the new meme stocks of 2025, companies undergoing transformation will inevitably create wealth for a wave of people. Currently, this crypto-stock feast has yet to reach its end.
(The above content is an authorized excerpt and reprint from our partner PANews, original link | Source: Deep Tide TechFlow)
"Ethereum reserve companies become the new favorites in U.S. stocks, reviewing the business and key figures behind these 'four star companies'" was first published in (Block客).
