Ethereum's revival battle: Lubin leads the $425 million treasury strategy

Author: Prathik Desai Translator: Block unicorn

Foreword

Two weeks ago, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder and CEO Joe Lubin announced that he would serve as chairman of the board of SharpLink Gaming and lead its $425 million Ethereum treasury strategy.

The move adds a new chapter to the revival of Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, after more than four months of hovering below $3,000.

The move is in line with the strategy promoted by Michael Saylor, whose Bitcoin-focused financial strategy has inspired a large number of public companies to participate in Bitcoin treasury construction.

In this article, we analyze whether this is one of the best opportunities for Ethereum's revival.

Ethereum Treasury

When SharpLink Gaming announced a fundraiser to build an Ethereum Treasury, the market reaction was swift and unequivocal.

Its share price skyrocketed more than 450% in one day, from $6.63 per share to over $35. In five trading days, the share price skyrocketed more than 17 times from $6.63. Even after the pullback, it is still trading more than 3 times higher than when the rally began.

What’s driving this rally?

The belief that Lubin can help SharpLink replicate the success Saylor had at Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).

Ethereum allows Lubin to do at least one thing better than Bitcoin Vault: build an active ETH vault that not only stores value like Bitcoin does, but also creates more value.

How?

Active Treasury Theory

The difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury strategies is significant. The logic of Bitcoin treasury is simple: buy Bitcoin, hold Bitcoin, and enjoy price appreciation. It’s an elegant and simple approach, but it’s inherently passive.

Ethereum’s treasury strategy is different from Bitcoin: most ETH tokens will be used for staking, creating what Ethereum core developer Eric Conner describes as “high-beta, yield-generating ETH leverage.”

Staking strategies will transform corporate treasuries from static vaults to active participants in network security.

Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings do not generate any native returns, but SharpLink’s staked ETH will earn at least 2% per year while strengthening Ethereum’s consensus mechanism.

Conner also mentioned the "flywheel effect" as a key advantage of ETH Vault.

Enterprises can raise cash at a discount to net asset value, buy and stake ETH, and then if the stock trades above the value of each ETH share, raise more cash and repeat the process. This is a classic Strategy cycle, but its super-strong yield-making ability is something that Bitcoin Vault cannot replicate.

The advantages go far beyond basic staking.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols provide additional yield strategies through lending, liquidity provision, and complex financial instruments that do not exist in the Bitcoin ecosystem. SharpLink is backed by DeFi-savvy companies such as ParaFi Capital and Galaxy Digital, showing that they understand this potential.

ETH Vaults with BTC

Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014 raised $18 million. ETH was priced between $0.30 and $0.40 at the time, laying the foundation for the Ethereum ecosystem that is now worth more than $320 billion.

SharpLink’s commitment of $425 million is more than 20 times the amount raised in the ICO, enough to acquire more than 150,000 ETH at current prices. But this still only accounts for 0.25% of the ETH (60 million) sold during the ICO.

The ICO in 2014 laid the foundation for Ethereum. The current treasury strategy may verify its maturity as an institutional asset and help build financial infrastructure in the next decade.

Institutional boom

In addition to the treasury strategy, Ethereum ETFs have also continued to record inflows in institutional channels in the past two weeks.

As of June 9, the Ethereum ETF has recorded net inflows for 16 consecutive trading days, the second longest streak since it was approved in July 2024.

In the past two weeks, inflows of $281 million and $285 million were recorded, respectively, which was the best two weeks for the Ethereum ETF in four months.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, has accumulated more than $500 million worth of ETH in 11 trading days. Its ETHA ETF now manages nearly $4 billion in assets.

In recent research, Bernstein analysts noted that "ETH ETF inflows reached $815 million in the past 20 days, and annual net inflows turned positive at $658 million."

CoinShares said that seven consecutive weeks of ETF inflows totaling $1.5 billion marked a "significant recovery in investor sentiment."

Ethereum-based products now account for 10.5% of the total assets under management of crypto ETPs.

"The narrative around the accumulation of value in public blockchain networks is at a critical turning point," and this "is beginning to be reflected in investor interest in ETH ETF inflows," Bernstein said.

Our View

Lubin’s move at SharpLink not only has an immediate financial impact, but also marks Ethereum’s evolution from speculative technology to important financial infrastructure.

As payment giants like Visa and Mastercard develop stablecoin strategies, as Coinbase builds merchant payment systems, and as Robinhood plans to launch tokenized assets—they are essentially betting on Ethereum’s trajectory.

This may be what Bernstein calls a “critical inflection point,” a moment when blockchain networks shift.

The timing seems deliberate.

With stablecoin legislation advancing in Congress and regulatory clarity emerging, institutional investors finally have the framework they need to confidently allocate. This week’s successful IPO of Circle, which closed 160% above its listing price, shows Wall Street’s enthusiasm for crypto infrastructure investment.

For Ethereum, the convergence of corporate treasury adoption, institutional ETF inflows, and regulatory clarity creates conditions that did not exist in previous cycles.

If SharpLink’s experiment is successful, it could set off a “domino effect” of corporate adoption, just as Saylor’s Strategy did for Bitcoin. Ethereum adoption could be faster and larger, given that Bitcoin’s similar risk model has proven to be manageable.

In addition to corporate adoption, if BlackRock continues to increase its stake and regulatory clarity solidifies as expected, Lubin’s move could be remembered as Ethereum’s first step toward an institutional chapter.