SharpLink Gaming announces $425 million funding for ethereum treasury strategy, sending s
May 27, 2025
Joseph Lubin, cofounder of ethereum and Consensys, attends the Day 2 of the RISE Conference (3studio/Getty Images)
Joseph Lubin, the cofounder of the blockchain network and Consensys, will act as the chairman of SharpLink’s board of directors.
The appetite for public companies to adopt cryptocurrencies as a treasury reserve asset continues to grow, with ethereum now getting its own iteration of Michael Saylor’s Strategy.
On Tuesday, sportsbook marketing firm SharpLink Gaming announced it raised roughly $425 million through a private investment in public equity offering to adopt an ethereum treasury playbook, helping the company’s stock jump over 400%.
SharpLink shares spiked as high as $52 before closing at$35.80, a bid up since Friday, when they were trading at about $6. The $425 million will be used to acquire ethereum and serve as the firm’s primary treasury reserve asset, according to the firm’s press release.
The price of etherum has increased 5.6% in the last 24 hours to trade hands at the $2,680 level, outpacing the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, data pulled from CoinGecko shows. The market cap of ethereum and SharpLink now stand at roughly $323 billion and $24 million, respectively.
Ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin will become the chairman of SharpLink’s board of directors when the offering closes, which is expected to occur on Thursday.
Ethereum software development firm Consensys, founded by Lubin as well, led the investment round. It was joined by other venture capital firms and infrastructure providers like Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, and Primitive Ventures.
Maria Shen, the general partner for Electric Capital, which participated in the capital raise, told Sherwood News that there’s “great momentum” in the ethereum ecosystem stemming from the network’s latest Pectra upgrade and new leadership in the Ethereum Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the network. “There’s also a growing realization that ethereum is a great home for institutional capital,” Shen said.
SharpLink’s announcement comes after several public companies have adopted rival cryptocurrencies as reserve assets.
Consumer goods company Upexi holds 597,002 solana tokens worth about $106.5 million, while DeFi Dev Corp has 609,233 solana coins in its treasury, representing $108.4 million.
Strategy, which started as a software enterprise business, has turned into a bitcoin vacuum machine, possessing 580,250 bitcoin worth $64 billion at current prices. Strategy’s latest acquisition was announced on Monday, when cofounder Michael Saylor disclosed that the firm scooped up an additional 4,020 bitcoin for about $427 million.
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Standard Chartered initiates solana coverage, predicts $275 price
Today, Standard Chartered initiated coverage of solana, writing that it “is a fast, cheap alternative to ethereum; as a result, it has dominated memecoin trading.”
That said, Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, wrote the token may be a “one-trick pony,” as “memecoin activity associated with solana appears to be past its peak. Declining usage and trading ‘cheap’ are not a good mix.”
On the positive side, Kendrick wrote that solana has proven it is able “to handle large transaction volumes, quickly and cheaply,” which works well for meme coin trading.
Solana is the sixth-largest crypto, with a $92.85 billion market cap.
Kendrick wrote that as meme coin trading on solana has passed its peak, he believes solana will continue to underperform ethereum “over the next two to three years, before catching up, at least in real terms.”
Standard Chartered projects solana to reach $275 at the end of 2025 and $500 by the end of 2029, a significant rise from its current price of $177.
Trump Media raising $2.5 billion to establish bitcoin treasury
Trump Media & Technology Group announced today they will “issue and sell approximately $1.5 billion in the Company’s common stock and $1.0 billion in principal amount of 0.00% convertible senior secured notes” to establish a bitcoin treasury.
Yesterday, The Financial Times reported the company was raising $3 billion to buy bitcoin and other crypto assets. Trump Media shares were up as much as 13% in premarket Monday morning but dropped 9% after the market opened. Bitcoin’s price was hovering around $110,000 this morning, just days after reaching a new all-time high of $111,814 on May 22.
The move comes ahead of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Vice President JD Vance, as well as President Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., are speaking at the event.
The company earlier denied the FT report, telling the outlet in a statement, “Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.”
This would be the latest in a growing move into crypto for the Trump family. Last week, Trump hosted his $TRUMP meme coin dinner, which sparked considerable controversy.
Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, announced the launch of the financial services and fintech brand Truth.Fi in January, and in February, it applied for trademarks for a slew of “America First-themed” ETFs, including one for bitcoin, the Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF.
The move comes ahead of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Vice President JD Vance, as well as President Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., are speaking at the event.
The company earlier denied the FT report, telling the outlet in a statement, “Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.”
This would be the latest in a growing move into crypto for the Trump family. Last week, Trump hosted his $TRUMP meme coin dinner, which sparked considerable controversy.
Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, announced the launch of the financial services and fintech brand Truth.Fi in January, and in February, it applied for trademarks for a slew of “America First-themed” ETFs, including one for bitcoin, the Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF.
About last night’s $TRUMP dinner: Protestors, $100,000 watches, and excited attendees
Donald Trump arrived by helicopter to greet the top holders of his meme coin but didn’t stay long.
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy5/23/25
5/22/25
Strategy rises as it announces plan to sell $2.1 billion of Strife stock to buy more bitcoin
Bitcoin stockpiler Strategy announced a $2.1 billion sale of its Series A Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock. The company, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, will use the proceeds of the at-the-market program to buy more bitcoin and for “working capital,” according to a press release.
Earlier this week, the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging it “made false and/or misleading statements with respect to and/or failed to disclose information with respect to the anticipated profitability of our bitcoin-focused investment strategy and treasury operations.”
With its latest bitcoin acquisition on May 19, Strategy now holds 576,230 bitcoin. Shares were up 2% in early trading, but that may be due to the skyrocketing price of bitcoin itself, which continued to reach new highs overnight, hitting over $111,700 after breaking its previous all-time high yesterday.
As of 10:00 a.m. ET, bitcoin was hovering around $111,000 — not a bad way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day.
The recent rally has prompted several analysts to remain optimistic about bitcoin’s trajectory.
“My official forecasts for Bitcoin are 120k end Q2, 200k end 2025 and 500k end 2028. All are well in hand,” Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered Bank global head of digital assets research, wrote in a May 22 note.
Earlier this week, the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging it “made false and/or misleading statements with respect to and/or failed to disclose information with respect to the anticipated profitability of our bitcoin-focused investment strategy and treasury operations.”
With its latest bitcoin acquisition on May 19, Strategy now holds 576,230 bitcoin. Shares were up 2% in early trading, but that may be due to the skyrocketing price of bitcoin itself, which continued to reach new highs overnight, hitting over $111,700 after breaking its previous all-time high yesterday.
As of 10:00 a.m. ET, bitcoin was hovering around $111,000 — not a bad way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day.
The recent rally has prompted several analysts to remain optimistic about bitcoin’s trajectory.
“My official forecasts for Bitcoin are 120k end Q2, 200k end 2025 and 500k end 2028. All are well in hand,” Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered Bank global head of digital assets research, wrote in a May 22 note.
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