Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein initiated coverage on Ethereum treasury company SharpLink Gaming (ticker: SBET) on Thursday with an outperform rating and a $24 price target by the end of 2026 — implying approximately 75% upside potential from its Oct. 29 closing price of $13.61.

Modeled after bitcoin treasury firm pioneer Strategy, SharpLink has built its playbook around long-term ETH accumulation and staking to earn sustainable yield. “We expect SBET to emerge as a compliant-first-institutional focused investment vehicle to access ETH as an investment and yield-generating asset,” the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said in a note to clients.

Bernstein values SharpLink at a 15% premium to its Ethereum treasury net asset value, citing its capacity to generate a 3.4% compound annual growth rate yield over the next 10 years through staking, accretive ETH or share purchases, and other onchain strategies.

The analysts described SharpLink as a “leading Ethereum treasury company,” holding 860,299 ETH — about 0.7% of the total supply — with a net asset value of $3.6 billion. However, Tom Lee-chaired BitMine is currently the largest Ethereum DAT by holdings, with over 3.3 million ETH ($12.5 billion), according to its latest disclosures.

They also noted SharpLink’s alignment with the broader Consensys ecosystem, founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, who also serves as SharpLink’s Chairman, and highlighted its management’s institutional experience, including recent co-CEO hire Joseph Chalom, formerly BlackRock’s head of strategic ecosystem partnerships.

Bernstein said the company’s collaboration with Consensys — particularly through Linea and its planned $200 million ETH deployment on the Ethereum Layer 2 network — positions SharpLink to benefit from additional yield through staking, restaking, and liquidity programs.

SharpLink’s shares currently trade at a 19% discount to its treasury value, but continued ETH accumulation, share buybacks, and debt scaling could close the gap over time, according to the analysts. As global interest rates decline, Bernstein expects investors to increasingly seek exposure to Ethereum yields, positioning SharpLink as a key institutional vehicle in that shift.

SBET was down 3.6% in early market trading on Thursday at $13.13, according to The Block’s SharpLink price page, having plunged 83% since its summer peak alongside the broader DAT market collapse. Nevertheless, it remains up 71% year-to-date.

SBET/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.

Predicting Ethereum to hit $25,000 by 2035

The analysts said that valuing Ethereum as a tech stack is a “flawed approach,” as its objective is to maintain security of the tokenized economy, and not maximize revenue. They expect ETH’s value to follow the growth of economic assets secured on the chain and value ETH as a reserve asset of the network.

They project Ethereum-native tokenized assets, including stablecoins on both Layer 1 and Layer 2s, to scale from around $172 billion today to $5 trillion by the end of 2035. They also reiterated their prediction that ETH’s price will grow from less than $4,000 today to $15,000 by 2030 and $25,000 by 2035 — implying a 20% 10-year compound annual growth rate for ETH.

Gautam Chhugani maintains long positions in various cryptocurrencies. Bernstein or its affiliates may receive compensation for investment banking services from Sharplink Gaming.

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