Ethereum Treasury SharpLink Shares Plunge 20% Amid $6 Billion Plan to Buy More ETH

SharpLink Gaming shares closed down 20% on Friday, a day after the gambling marketing company said it was looking to boost a stock sale from $1 billion to $6 billion in a regulatory filing—its latest move in an ongoing effort to build its Ethereum treasury.

SharpLink (SBET), according to Yahoo Finance, was was still up about 16% for a week that included two major ETH purchases.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company’s stock has reacted positively to previous announcements tied to its strategic shift to become the world’s largest corporate accumulator of ETH, a position it now holds, based on Arkham data. SBET jumped 16% after picking up $48 million on Monday and then $225 million on Tuesday

SBET has spiked more than 330% since late May when it took initial steps to pivot its focus from affiliate marketing with a $425 million private placement largely earmarked for Ethereum buying.

With Thursday purchases of more than $115 million in ETH, the firm holds about $1.3 billion worth of the asset, according to Arkham.

In a Thursday supplement to a prospectus filed May 30 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it would increase its stock sale goal by $5 billion.

“We are increasing the total amount of common stock that may be sold under the sales agreement to $6 billion, comprising of up to $1 billion under the prior prospectus and an additional $5 billion under this prospectus supplement,” the company said in the latest filing.

Ethereum was recently trading at about $3,550, a 2% dip over the past 24 hours, according to crypto markets data provider CoinGecko. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market value has risen more than 41% over the past 14 days as a number of companies with ETH treasuries have added to their holdings, and amid rising optimism about the underlying Ethereum network’s usefulness.

On Friday, Bit Digital (BTBT), which previously focused on Bitcoin mining, announced the purchase of approximately 19,683 ETH. The company holds about 120,306 Ethereum worth nearly $70 million. BTBT’s share price sank more than 4% on Friday, although it is up about 60% this year.

On Thursday, the Peter Thiel-backed BitMine Immersion, which also moved from mining to Ethereum holding, surpassed $1 billion in Ethereum after adding $500 million in ETH to its holdings. The firm, which hopes to control 5% of all Ethereum held or staked, debuted its strategy earlier this month.

Those firms have followed a model pioneered by Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, which shifted from software development to Bitcoin purchasing in 2020 after years of struggling and low share prices. Strategy now holds more than 601,500 Bitcoin worth over $71 billion based on BTC’s current price, according to bitcointreasuries.net.