Written by: Cubone Wu Shuo Blockchain
This article does not constitute any investment advice. Readers should strictly abide by local laws and regulations and not participate in illegal financial activities.
Since 2025, four US stock companies represented by SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Tech, Bit Digital, and BTCS Inc. have built an "ETH micro-strategy" that differs from the MicroStrategy holding paradigm by purchasing ETH on a large scale and investing it in on-chain staking. This strategy not only reshapes the company's balance sheet structure, but also promotes the narrative leap of Ethereum in the capital market. This article systematically sorts out the core logic of the four companies in terms of capital path, on-chain deployment, strategic motivation, and risk governance around ten key questions.
Q1: Which US stock companies currently hold the most ETH? How many coins does each hold?
As of July 2025, SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Tech, Bit Digital, and BTCS Inc. are the companies with the most ETH holdings in the US stock market. SharpLink Gaming holds approximately 358K ETH, followed closely by Bitmine with approximately 300.7K; Bit Digital holds approximately 120.3K ETH, and BTCS Inc. discloses holdings of 31.9K. Although Coinbase holds approximately 137.3K ETH as a trading platform, it is mainly for operational needs rather than strategic holdings, so it is usually not included in the "micro-strategy" category. The above four companies constitute the representative camp of the Ethereum "micro-strategy" trend in the current US stock market.
Q2: What are the main businesses of these four companies? Who is leading their Ethereum micro-strategy?
The four companies have different original business backgrounds, and the current Ethereum micro-strategies are all led and promoted by the company's current CEO or core members of the board of directors:
SharpLink Gaming (SBET): SharpLink Gaming was originally a provider of sports prediction and interactive gaming technology. Since 2025, the company has gradually increased its ETH holdings through PIPE and ATM financing methods and used it as a core configuration of the balance sheet. The related financing is led by Consensys Software Inc., and well-known crypto capitals such as Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, ParaFi Capital, and Galaxy Digital participated. Chairman of the Board Joseph Lubin (co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Consensys) is regarded as a key driver of this strategic transformation, and his deep background in the blockchain field provides directional support for the company to introduce Ethereum reserves.
Bitmine Immersion Tech (BMNR): Bitmine was originally a blockchain infrastructure company, mainly engaged in Bitcoin mining site operations and liquid-cooled hardware sales, covering low-cost energy areas such as Texas and Trinidad. In June 2025, the company raised approximately $250 million by privately issuing 55.6 million shares at $4.50 per share to expand its ETH reserves. Crypto capitals such as Founders Fund and Pantera Capital participated. Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee was appointed chairman of the board and leads the ETH strategic path.
Bit Digital (BTBT): Originally a Bitcoin mining company, it has transformed into a digital asset infrastructure platform in recent years, focusing on expanding ETH validator deployment and staking revenue strategies. The current CEO, Samir Tabar, has a Merrill Lynch and BitMEX background and has led the company to gradually accumulate and stake ETH since 2022, generating revenue by running Ethereum validators. As of March 31, 2025, institutional shareholders include BlackRock, Invesco, and VanEck, holding 3.53%, 2.12%, and 1.61% of the company's shares, respectively.
BTCS Inc. (BTCS): Has been focusing on blockchain infrastructure construction since 2014. Since 2021, it has focused on the Ethereum ecosystem, deploying validator nodes and block building businesses, and launched the Builder+ block optimization tool in 2024 to explore Ethereum staking and block revenue opportunities. The ETH strategy is led by CEO Charles W. Allen, reflecting the company's continued investment in long-term blockchain development.
Q3: What are the main sources of funds for these companies to purchase ETH on a large scale?
The four companies do not rely on operating cash flow to purchase coins, but provide financial support for ETH micro-strategies through diversified paths such as PIPE, ATM additional issuance, convertible bonds, DeFi lending, and BTC asset realization, reflecting the common strategy of "using the balance sheet to leverage on-chain revenue".
SharpLink Gaming mainly builds a financing platform through a combination of PIPE and ATM. In May 2025, the company completed a PIPE financing of approximately $420 million; on July 17, it submitted a revised document to the U.S. SEC, increasing the original ATM agreement financing quota from $1 billion to $6 billion, and including the PIPE portion in the unified registration scope. The company has stated in multiple statements that these funds will be used to build ETH strategic reserves and execute on-chain staking.
Bitmine Immersion Tech completed a $250 million private placement in July 2025 and introduced Founders Fund to obtain a 9.1% strategic stake. The company stated that it plans to use all financing to build ETH reserves, including the subsequent construction of staking revenue, but there is no publicly disclosed path for on-chain staking deployment as of now.
Bit Digital adopts a combined financing strategy of "BTC realization + public offering". In July 2025, the company raised approximately $172 million in total through a public offering and the sale of BTC (approximately 280 coins in total), which was specifically used to purchase ETH and build an on-chain staking revenue model. Subsequently, on July 15, it announced that it would raise approximately $67.3 million again through a private placement of common stock, which would continue to be used to expand the strategic allocation of ETH.
BTCS Inc. mainly builds ETH holdings continuously through three paths: "ATM additional issuance + convertible bonds + DeFi lending", and has increased its target financing scale to $225 million, emphasizing compounding ETH per share with minimal shareholder dilution.
Q4: Why did these companies choose to bet on ETH instead of BTC?
Compared to BTC as a "non-revenue-generating reserve asset", ETH has the characteristics of being stakeable and generating stable on-chain revenue after transitioning to PoS, becoming a digital asset tool similar to "revenue-generating treasury bonds". At the same time, the Ethereum ecosystem is still in the distributed narrative stage and lacks a leading monopolist like MSTR for BTC, so there is more room for narrative margins, greater price elasticity, which is conducive to small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the market through financing + staking. In addition, ETH has a wider range of on-chain uses, allowing companies to participate in validator networks, re-staking ecosystems, and even modular security collaboration mechanisms.
Q5: Do these companies' ETH participate in staking? What are the differences in staking paths?
SharpLink: Has used almost all of its ETH holdings for staking, with an annualized return ranging from approximately 3%–4%, and has accumulated over 415 ETH in staking revenue as of July 2025.
Bit Digital: Actively promotes native staking. By the end of the first quarter, approximately 21,568 ETH had participated in validation, accounting for nearly 88% of the holdings at that time, generating approximately $600,000 in revenue for the quarter.
BTCS: Adopts a diversified approach, having staked approximately 10,460 ETH through Rocket Pool and solo staking, with approximately 4,382 more ETH waiting in line. At the same time, the company also mortgages some ETH to Aave to obtain lending revenue, building a diversified on-chain revenue path.
Bitmine: Although it has not yet disclosed staking execution details, it has repeatedly stated publicly that it will launch an ETH staking plan after financing is completed.
The four companies demonstrate different trade-offs and technical paths in terms of staking methods, node control, and on-chain operation strategies.
Q6: Does the company disclose its ETH profit and loss situation? Are the on-chain addresses transparent?
SharpLink: Is currently the only company with publicly traceable ETH addresses, and its capital flow and staking path can be fully verified through platforms such as Arkham. The company also disclosed that the average purchase price of ETH is $2,825, and as of July 2025, it has achieved a floating profit of approximately $260 million.
Bit Digital: Does not disclose on-chain addresses, but continuously updates key data such as ETH holdings and staking revenue through financial reports, providing basic transparency.
BTCS: Also does not disclose addresses, but provides detailed lists of ETH configuration structures in Rocket Pool, solo staking, and Aave lending in its official website and SEC filings, with clear asset paths to follow.
Bitmine: The latest disclosure shows holdings of 300,657 ETH, with a total market value of over $1 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $3,461.89, funded by a private financing completed in early July; however, its on-chain address and staking details have not been disclosed.
Overall, SharpLink is the most complete in terms of profit and loss disclosure and on-chain transparency. Although the remaining three companies have not disclosed addresses, they have provided key information in their financial reports, constituting a basically traceable framework.
Q7: How high is the proportion of ETH in the asset structure of these companies? Has it become a core reserve?
According to the latest data, as of July 2025, the current market value of ETH held by SharpLink, Bitmine, Bit Digital, and BTCS (calculated at a unit price of approximately $3,573) is approximately $1.278 billion, $1.074 billion, $429 million, and $114 million, respectively. Compared to the latest estimated market capitalization of each company (respectively $2.9 billion, $3.4 billion, $1.23 billion, and $153 million), the proportion of ETH assets is approximately:
• SharpLink: Approximately 44%
• Bitmine: Approximately 32%
• Bit Digital: Approximately 35%
• BTCS: Approximately 74%
It should be pointed out that the rapid increase in the proportion of ETH in these companies may be partly influenced by the popularity of on-chain narratives, and there may be market behavior of using topic effects to promote valuation. In the absence of stable operating cash flow support, the sustainability of this type of strategy and the resulting risk exposure still depend on further observation of the cash flow situation, financing rhythm, and staking deployment progress in their financial reports.
Q8: Has this type of ETH micro-strategy promoted stock price increases? What is the market feedback?
As of July 18, 2025, the stock prices of the four US stock companies implementing ETH micro-strategies have all experienced significant increases, but also accompanied by sharp declines, with extremely large overall fluctuations:
SharpLink Gaming (SBET): The stock price started from approximately $2.58 at the end of May, reached a high of $124.12 in early June, and then fell sharply. On July 18, it closed at $28.98, with a phased drawdown of 92.5%. Although it has recently risen again, it is still far below the high level overall.
BitMine Immersion Tech (BMNR): After listing in June, it soared to $161.00 in the short term, and as of July 18, it has fallen back to $42.35, with a drawdown of about 73.7%, indicating that the market's initial reaction to its ETH strategy was highly speculative.
BTCS Inc. (BTCS): Rose from a low of $1.35 in April to a high of $8.49, an increase of over 528%, and is currently closing at $6.57. Although it is still at a relatively high level, there have been rapid adjustments of more than 20% in the middle.
Bit Digital (BTBT): The stock price rose from $1.69 to $4.49 and then fell back to $3.84, with a cumulative increase of approximately 127%. There were multiple corrections during the period, and the overall volatility was significant.
Overall, "ETH micro-strategy" has indeed become the core catalyst for the soaring stock prices of the above companies in the short term. However, due to the generally small size of related companies, the on-chain assets have a prominent supporting effect on valuation, and the market trading is extremely sensitive. SharpLink and BitMine have experienced deep drawdowns of over 70% in the short term, showing obvious high-risk and high-volatility characteristics, and the sharp rise and fall caused by concentrated inflows and outflows of funds has become a typical market reaction to this strategy.
Q9: What are the main risks of this type of strategy? Is it sustainable?
This type of ETH micro-strategy has multiple risks, the core of which include the following aspects:
First, there are price and liquidity risks. The price of ETH itself fluctuates sharply. If the market experiences a deep correction, it will directly affect the company's book valuation. Especially when in a staking state, the assets cannot be circulated in the short term, which will increase liquidity pressure.
Secondly, there are on-chain risks and re-staking uncertainties. In order to improve the yield of ETH holdings, enterprises may participate in on-chain staking or re-staking of some assets. Although this can improve capital efficiency in the short term, it also introduces risks such as smart contracts, penalty mechanisms, and validator node errors. Once a systemic problem occurs in the on-chain ecosystem, it may cause the pledged assets to depreciate or become unavailable in a short period of time, affecting financial stability.
Third, there is the risk of financing structure. Most companies currently rely on at-the-market (ATM) issuance mechanisms to provide funding for purchasing ETH. This type of continuous equity financing will face reduced efficiency or even financing interruptions when the market turns cold, and there is also the problem of diluting the rights and interests of existing shareholders.
In addition, as the number of validators increases, the downward pressure on PoS yields is also gradually emerging. If on-chain yields continue to decline and the company's finances have not achieved positive cash flow, it will be difficult to maintain revenue coverage for the ETH strategy.
Ultimately, whether an enterprise has the ability to dynamically adjust positions, a stable financial scheduling mechanism, and the ability to control the rhythm between on-chain and off-chain operations will determine whether the strategy can truly achieve long-term stable operation.
Q10: Do these companies have the opportunity to become the "Ethereum version of MicroStrategy"? Why hasn't a leading pattern formed yet?
Currently, SharpLink and Bitmine have initially formed a market perception of representative companies of the "ETH micro-strategy", but there is still a significant gap from truly possessing a global pricing anchor effect similar to MicroStrategy in the Bitcoin market. The main reasons include:
First, the asset attributes of ETH itself are more complex. Unlike BTC as a fixed-supply, non-stakeable "value reserve asset", ETH has revenue attributes and a dynamically adjusted supply mechanism, making it more like a composite financial instrument rather than a pure reserve asset. This multiple positioning makes it difficult for companies to build a single narrative anchor around ETH.
Secondly, there is a high barrier to entry for executing on-chain strategies. ETH micro-strategies often require companies to operate or host staking nodes, or participate in more complex on-chain revenue deployments. The technical complexity and security risks are far higher than simple asset allocation, making it difficult for most companies to replicate on a large scale.
Third, the current market capitalization of related companies is generally small, financing tools are limited, and a synergistic mechanism similar to MSTR's "valuation premium + convertible bonds + media narrative" has not yet been formed, nor has a financial flywheel been established that can drive secondary market sentiment resonance.
Finally, the ETH market currently lacks a "representative enterprise" with high consensus, broad coverage, and strong leverage capabilities. To become a true "Ethereum version of MicroStrategy", it needs not only to continuously accumulate ETH, but also to form a closed loop in multiple dimensions such as financing capabilities, on-chain deployment, narrative control, and valuation transmission.
