Author: EeeVee
In the past month, Ethereum (ETH) surged from $2,100 to $3,000, during which American companies and mining firms announced purchases of ETH as their 'strategic reserve', with some mining companies even selling all their BTC to buy ETH with cash.
Statistics show that Ethereum strategic reserve companies purchased over 545,000 ETH in the past month, with a total value exceeding $1.6 billion.
SharpLink (SBET), as the first company to use ETH as a strategic reserve, saw its stock price soar from $3 to over $100 after announcing its purchase of ETH, only to fall back to single digits, attracting market criticism. Currently, its stock price has risen again to over $20.
Recently, SBET also made a large purchase of nearly 50,000 ETH within just 5 days, bringing its total ETH holdings to surpass those of the Ethereum Foundation.
Additionally, SBET has staked some of its held ETH on-chain to earn staking yields, and as of July 8, its staking position has earned 322 ETH.
Currently, there are 5 American companies using ETH as a 'strategic reserve':
SharpLink Gaming (SBET)
BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR)
Bit Digital (BTBT)
Blockchain Technology Consensus Solutions (BTCS)
GameSquare (GAME)
The ETH holdings of each company are as follows:
mNAV is the ratio of market capitalization to net asset value (NAV), calculated as:
The mNAV of Ethereum strategic reserve companies is primarily estimated based on their 'total market capitalization of shares' / 'total value of held ETH'.
Is the market in FOMO?
The mNAV figure represents the disconnect between a company's market value and its assets, reflecting market sentiment toward a particular concept or stock. A higher mNAV often indicates heavy speculative sentiment, while a lower mNAV suggests investors are in a relatively rational state regarding a concept or stock.
In terms of the premium rate for BTC strategic reserve companies, as of May 2025, MicroStrategy (MSTR) has a market cap approximately 1.78 times its Bitcoin net asset value (mNAV), with its mNAV fluctuating between 1 and 4.5 times from August 2022 to August 2024.
The mNAV curve of MSTR reflects how sentiment in the crypto market drives the valuation of such companies.
Its high point, such as 4.5 times, typically appears during BTC bull market cycles and periods of MSTR's large-scale BTC accumulation, showing strong investor enthusiasm. The low point of 1 time corresponds to bear markets and consolidation periods in the crypto market, indicating investors are unwilling to pay a sentiment premium for it.
An mNAV within the range of 2-2.5 represents relatively neutral investment sentiment and premium.
Using this as a benchmark to measure these 5 Ethereum strategic reserve companies: SBET and BTCS are currently in this range, while BMNR and BTBT's mNAV appears slightly too high.
It should be noted that BMNR and BTBT were originally mining companies and may still hold other assets besides ETH, whose values have not yet been calculated.
Overall, the current valuation of Ethereum strategic reserve stocks remains in a relatively rational range, and the market's hype has not yet reached FOMO.
If Ethereum rises to $5,000, how many times can these companies multiply?
If in the coming months, the price of ETH continues to rise and reaches $5,000, assuming these companies' total ETH holdings remain unchanged and no additional fundraising occurs, estimating based on a relatively rational premium (mNAV = 2), the stock prices and potential increases would be:
Investors need to note that an mNAV of 2 represents a relatively neutral premium rate. If ETH does rise to $5,000, the market may be willing to pay a higher sentiment premium for these ETH strategic reserve companies.
Moreover, during this period, the ETH staked by these companies will also generate yields, increasing their total ETH holdings.
Ethereum Value Discovery? Why Did It Suddenly Become a Darling for Institutions
When these Ethereum strategic reserve companies discuss why they chose ETH, the reasons mainly include the following three aspects:
The success of BTC reserve companies like MSTR
ETH's staking yields
The future potential of ETH in stablecoins and RWA narratives.
The CEO of Bit Digital, Sam Tabar, is very optimistic about replicating MSTR's model on ETH and is confident that ETH will rise to $10,000.
“(Establishing Ethereum reserves) we are just getting started. This is just a warm-up. Think about how Saylor circulates his stock to acquire BTC, and then BTC keeps rising, giving him more ability to repeat the whole process.”
Primitive Ventures emphasized the potential of ETH staking yields as a reason for betting on SBET:
“ETH possesses natural yield capabilities in staking and the DeFi ecosystem, making it a true productive asset, whereas Bitcoin lacks such mechanisms. SBET is expected to directly leverage ETH's on-chain mechanisms for compounding growth, providing real and quantifiable returns for shareholders.”
The CEO of Bitmine Immersion Technologies is more optimistic about ETH's potential in the RWA and TradFi narratives, stating in an interview:
“In my opinion, the attraction of Ethereum is that it is the first layer blockchain for tokenization of real-world assets. As more and more things in the financial world and the real world are tokenized, financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Amazon, and Walmart will also wish to stake Ethereum itself, just as they did with stablecoins. We are doing what these companies will do in the future.”