Its not just bitcoin. Companies are now adding ethereum to their balance sheets.

Yahoo

5 days ago

It's not just bitcoin (BTC-USD) that corporate treasuries are buying. A handful of firms are scooping up ethereum — or its native token, ether (ETH-USD) — as a way to gain exposure to the tech infrastructure behind decentralized finance and digital assets.
So far, the companies taking this approach are mainly smaller names in the crypto world, such as BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), chaired by Fundstrat's Tom Lee. One larger player — Coinbase Global (COIN), the parent company of trading network Coinbase — has more than $440 million in holdings, according to crypto and investment tracker CoinGecko.
When Coinbase announced in a 2021 blog post that it would become the first publicly traded company to hold ethereum and other assets, in addition to bitcoin, it stated, "We believe that in the future, more and more companies will hold crypto assets on their balance sheet."
Ethereum has surged 60% over the past month to hover near $3,800, its highest level since January. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has yet to reclaim its 2021 high north of $4,600.
Ethereum allows developers to write programs or contracts that run entirely on its blockchain, or network. It currently leads as the dominant infrastructure that allows businesses and consumers to transact with each other directly without banks, with a market share of more than 51%.
"Ethereum lets anyone — whether it's a crypto project, a factory, an artist, an influencer — create their own token and thus their own community and incentivize communities with an economy basically," Ray Youssef, CEO of crypto marketplace NoOnes, told Yahoo Finance.
He called tokenization ethereum's "killer app."
"You could argue it has more utility than bitcoin," he said.
That utility is why firms like BitMine and SharpLink Gaming have increasingly been raising capital to buy ETH, similar to how Strategy (MSTR) and a slew of other companies have added bitcoin to their balance sheets in recent months.
Read more: Can you buy crypto with a credit card? See the pros and cons.
As with bitcoin, the approach can be risky due to volatile prices. Ethereum prices tumbled in April when President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs announcement roiled markets. The rewards have not been as high as those that bitcoin has offered either: The return on ethereum year to date is 14%, versus bitcoin's 26%.
Crypto miner BitMine Immersion Technologies recently announced it holds more than $1 billion in ethereum, or roughly 300,000 tokens. The company, which went public on June 5, has positioned itself as a pure-play on ethereum, betting that owning it is akin to owning the underlying infrastructure behind the convergence of crypto and financial services.
"Acquiring $1 billion of ETH1 is a clear signal of our conviction in ethereum's long-term value," Jonathan Bates, CEO of BitMine, said in the press release announcing the news. He noted that the company was "committed to Ethereum's continued growth."
BitMine shares surged 25% in one session last week after an SEC filing revealed that billionaire Peter Thiel purchased 9.1% of the firm's common stock through his investment funds.
Gaming and sports betting company SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and blockchain tech firm BTCS (BTCS) have also pursued similar treasury strategies. Shares of each are up nearly 200% over the past month.
Earlier this month, computing firm Bit Digital (BTBT) announced that it had shifted its entire treasury from bitcoin to ethereum.
"We believe Ethereum has the ability to rewrite the entire financial system," Sam Tabar, CEO of Bit Digital, said in a press release. Year to date, the stock is up 17%.
Ethereum's surge coincides with the GENIUS Act, landmark legislation signed by President Trump last Friday, moving through Congress. The new law regulates stablecoins, digital tokens backed by assets like the US dollar and short-term treasuries.
Optimism over stablecoin's adoption has sent shares of issuer Circle (CRCL) up more than 600% since its IPO on June 5. The company's USD Coins (USDC-USD) run on ethereum.
"If real companies and institutional investors are innovating on the blockchain, doesn't that make blockchain networks, and by implication, blockchain network assets (e.g ETH) valuable?" Bernstein's Gautam Chhugani asked in a note last month. "Any company that uses stablecoin tech pays transaction fees to the Ethereum network."
To be sure, not all companies see the same value in ethereum as they do in bitcoin.
When asked directly whether Strategy would add ETH to its holdings, executive chairman Michael Saylor said in an interview with The Street, "MicroStrategy wouldn't because MicroStrategy is 150% Bitcoin. We do Bitcoin, we're 150% Bitcoin. We're going to be Bitcoin. And the only thing I like more than Bitcoin is more Bitcoin."
Indeed, ethereum is by no means replacing bitcoin as the investment of choice for companies, Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat, told Yahoo Finance. Consider it an adjacent strategy.
"I don't want people to misconstrue this movement from treasury companies to be viewed [as] ETH is replacing bitcoin. It's just blockchain technology applied in a different way for a different use case," Farrell said. "These companies are just capitalizing on the real world asset [tokenization] trends."
Ines Ferre is a Senior Business Reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.
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