After Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) took the lead in Bitcoin reserves, Ethereum Reserve Company took over and became a hot topic recently. Bitcoin miner BitMine led by Tom Lee and US online gaming company SharpLink led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin have been buying up ETH like crazy. According to statistics from strategicethreserve, the ETH held by these institutions has accounted for 1.91% of the total Ethereum. Who is the MicroStrategy of Ethereum?
The world's top five ETH holding listed companies
According to the coingecko report, strategicthreserve and various company press releases, Chain News compiled the ETH holdings and average costs of the top five ETH holding listed companies in the world as follows:
Company Stock Symbol ETH Holdings Average Cost BitMine Immersion Technologies BMNR 556,776 3,643 SharpLink Gaming SBET 360,807 2,864 Coinbase COIN 137,300 Unknown Bit Digital BTBT 120,306 1,989 BTCS Inc BTCS 55,788 2,846
The most eye-catching of these are BitMine, a Bitcoin miner led by Tom Lee, and SharpLink, an American online gaming company led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin. Both companies have been frantically buying up assets recently, vying to seize the throne of Ethereum reserve companies.
BitMine, led by Tom Lee and invested by Peter Thiel
Tom Lee, a well-known Wall Street analyst and co-founder of Fundstrat, took over as chairman of the board of directors of Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion Technologies in early July and promoted the company's transformation into an Ethereum reserve company. Investors include Tom Lee, Founders Fund, Pantera, FalconX, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, DCG, and GSR.
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel acquired a 9.1% stake in BitMine in his personal name, and his venture capital firm Founders Fund was also the company's initial investor.
BitMine's core businesses include Bitcoin mining, computing power trading, and Mining as a Service (MaaS).
Ark Investment Management, led by Cathie Wood, purchased approximately 4.77 million shares of BitMine through its three funds through a block trade under the market-priced stock offering plan, worth $182 million, which translates to a cost of $38.13 per share. Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark, also publicly stated that Ark's investment in BMNR shows its confidence in Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and believes that they will be one of the winners, saying that the winner will take all.
SharpLink CEO Joe Lubin buys ETH at a low cost
SharpLink Gaming Inc. (ticker: SBET) is an innovative performance marketing company headquartered in Minnesota, USA, focused on providing data-driven user conversion solutions to the sports betting and online gambling (iGaming) industries.
SharpLink announced its entry into the Ethereum (ETH) strategic reserve at the end of May, led by Consensys Software Inc., with participation from well-known crypto venture capital firms such as ParaFi Capital, Electric Capital, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital. The move is to establish an Ethereum strategic reserve asset that will be used to purchase and hold ETH or assets related to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Joe Lubin, CEO of SharpLink and co-founder of Ethereum, reached a final agreement with the Ethereum Foundation on July 10, using his long-term connections and influence in Ethereum, to purchase 10,000 ETH from it at a price of $25,72.37. His purchase cost of $2,864 was much lower than BitMine's $3,643.
The MicroStrategy of Ethereum: SharpLink or BitMine?
While SharpLink and BitMine were frantically buying up and competing to seize the throne of Ethereum reserve company, a discussion was also sparked about who is better, the native people in the cryptocurrency circle or the bigwigs on Wall Street.
Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark, publicly stated that these companies may be the next generation of asset managers in the era of on-chain capital markets, and used its funds to buy a large number of BMNR shares. However, its investment cost is not far from the current market price of ETH. Perhaps it is because she is more optimistic about the future application of Ethereum and the rise in the price of the currency. Tom Lee has already called for ETH to reach $15,000, and Arthur Hayes, founder of BitMEX, also believes that ETH has the opportunity to challenge $10,000.
SharpLink used its connections in Ethereum to buy ETH at a low price. In addition to staking Ethereum in the future, it is still unknown whether its core business of sports betting and online gambling (iGaming) can complement the application of cryptocurrency.
After experiencing an initial surge and correction, the stock prices of both have now entered a relatively stable stage. According to calculations by strategicethreserve, the mNAV (the ratio of the current stock price to the value of the ether it owns) of BitMine and SharpLink are 2.23 and 2.06 respectively, and there seems to be a great chance to promote the trend of the flywheel. As for which one is the micro-strategy in the Ethereum world, it is up to the readers to judge for themselves!
This article Cryptocurrency and Wall Street compete on the same stage. Is the MicroStrategy of Ethereum SharpLink or BitMine? first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
