Following Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy ( leading Bitcoin reserves, Ethereum reserve companies have taken the spotlight recently. Bitcoin miner BitMine, led by Tom Lee, and SharpLink, an online gaming company in the U.S. co-founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, are on a buying spree. According to statistics from strategicethreserve, these institutions hold 1.91% of the total Ethereum supply. Who, then, is the MicroStrategy of the Ethereum world?
Top five publicly traded companies holding ETH worldwide
According to news from ChainNews, the report from Coingecko, Strategic ETH Reserve, and various company press releases, the ETH holdings and average costs of the top five publicly listed companies holding ETH globally are summarized in the table below:
Company Stock Code 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 are the Bitcoin miner BitMine, led by Tom Lee, and the American online gaming company SharpLink, led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin. Recently, both companies have been on a buying spree, competing to seize the throne of Ethereum reserve companies.
BitMine led by Tom Lee with investment from Peter Thiel
Famous Wall Street analyst and co-founder of Fundstrat, Tom Lee, took over as chairman of the board of the Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion Technologies in early July, promoting the company’s transformation into an Ethereum reserve company. Investors include well-known crypto institutions such as Tom Lee, Founders Fund, Pantera, FalconX, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, DCG, and GSR.
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel personally acquired a 9.1% stake in BitMine, while his venture capital firm Founders Fund is also an initial investor in the company.
The core business of BitMine includes Bitcoin mining, hash power trading, and Mining as a Service )MaaS(.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management conducted a large-scale transaction through its market-cap stock issuance plan, purchasing approximately 4.77 million shares of BitMine stock valued at $182 million, which translates to a cost of $38.13 per share. Ark’s founder and CEO, Cathie Wood, publicly endorsed this investment, stating that Ark’s investment in BMNR demonstrates confidence in Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, believing they will become one of the winners, and that the winners will take it all.
SharpLink CEO Joe Lubin bought ETH at a low cost.
SharpLink Gaming Inc. (Stock Code: SBET) is an innovative performance marketing company headquartered in Minnesota, USA, focusing on providing data-driven user conversion solutions for the sports betting and online gambling iGaming industry.
SharpLink announced its entry into the Ethereum strategic reserve at the end of May, led by Consensys Software Inc., with participants including well-known crypto venture capital firms such as ParaFi Capital, Electric Capital, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital. This move is aimed at establishing a strategic reserve asset for Ethereum, which will be used to purchase and hold ETH or assets related to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Joe Lubin, the CEO of SharpLink and a co-founder of Ethereum, leveraged his long-standing connections and influence within Ethereum to reach a final agreement with the Ethereum Foundation on July 10, purchasing 10,000 ETH at a price of $25,72.37. His coin acquisition cost of $2,864 is significantly lower than BitMine’s $3,643.
Microstrategy in the Ethereum world: SharpLink or BitMine?
As SharpLink and BitMine frantically stock up, competing to seize the throne of Ethereum reserve companies, a debate has also erupted over which is superior: the native players of the crypto world or the Wall Street moguls.
Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of Ark Invest, publicly stated that these companies could be the next generation of asset managers in the era of on-chain capital markets, and has significantly purchased BMNR stock through her funds. However, the investment cost, when converted, is not far from the current market price of ETH. This might indicate a more optimistic view on the future applications of Ethereum and the rise in coin price. Currently, Tom Lee has projected ETH to reach 15,000 USD, while BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes also believes that ETH has the opportunity to challenge 10,000 USD.
SharpLink leverages its connections in Ethereum to acquire ETH at a low price. In the future, aside from staking Ether, it remains to be seen whether its core business in sports betting and online gambling )iGaming( can complement the application of cryptocurrency.
Both stocks have entered a relatively stable phase after experiencing an initial surge and correction. According to the calculations of strategicethreserve, the mNAV ) of BitMine and SharpLink currently has stock prices and their value in Ether compared to ( at 2.23 and 2.06 respectively, indicating there is still significant opportunity to drive the flywheel’s momentum. As for which one is the micro-strategy in the Ethereum realm, it is left for the readers to assess!
This article discusses the competition between the cryptocurrency world and Wall Street, asking whether the microstrategy in the Ethereum space is SharpLink or BitMine? It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
