SharpLink Gaming rang the Nasdaq closing bell in New York on Monday 7 July after becoming the largest listed holder of Ether (ETH). The stock surged.
SharpLink announced its Ethereum strategy at the beginning of the month, following a $425 million investment led by Consensys Software, with other crypto investors, that enabled SharpLink to buy more than 200,000 coins. In doing so, it has effectively become a publicly traded investment vehicle for ETH with a sports and casino gaming business alongside.
Beyond Bitcoin
Sharplink’s approach is similar to the type of Bitcoin treasury holding pioneered by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, in that returns come from increases in the price of the coin. Shareholders have applauded SharpLink’s decision to opt for Ethereum as its preferred platform to conduct the crypto treasury strategy, with the shares surging 39 percent on the day of the strategy announcement and a further 18 percent as at 17:45 UTC on Tuesday 8 July.
Ethereum is used to facilitate immutable contracts and applications, enabling Web 3 architecture. Its network powers the majority of stablecoin payments, tokenized assets and decentralized financial applications.
“Ethereum is… the financial foundation for what we believe will become the next generation of capital management and online gaming infrastructure,” Rob Phythian, CEO of SharpLink Gaming, said in a statement.
“The next generation of capital management and online gaming infrastructure.”
SharpLink’s Ether treasury position will allow access to protocol-level activities, such as staking and decentralized finance mechanisms, which are native to the Ethereum network. In turn, these provide additional potential revenue streams in addition to any Ether price increases.
Evolution of digital commerce
Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of Consensys and Co-Founder of Ethereum, has become Chairman of SharpLink’s board of directors.
“We are entering a new era where digital assets like Ethereum are no longer speculative instruments – they are fast becoming the strategic currency of the modern digital economy,” said Lubin. “By embedding Ethereum at the core of our capital strategy, we are doing more than optimizing SharpLink’s balance sheet.”
SharpLink said it will continues to focus on its core business of helping US-regulated and global iGaming partners to drive more people into online gaming.
