SharpLink buys 10,000 ETH directly from Ethereum Foundation, lifting value of treasury to over $558 million

Nasdaq-listed SharpLink Gaming (SBET) said Friday it has purchased 10,000 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation for $25.7 million, deepening what is the second-largest ether treasury.

The over-the-counter transaction closed on July 10 at $2,572.37 per coin and lifts SharpLink’s holdings to about 215,634 ETH, up from 205,634 ETH previously disclosed. The stack is worth roughly $558 million at current prices, according to DefiLlama data.

Apart from bolstering its corporate ETH treasury, the firm says it’s also supporting the long-term strength and decentralization of DeFi’s largest asset. “SharpLink is acquiring, staking, and restaking ETH as responsible industry stewards, removing supply from circulation and reinforcing the health of the Ethereum ecosystem,” SharpLink Chairman and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said.

The Minneapolis-based affiliate-marketing and iGaming software firm began pivoting its balance sheet to ether in early June and has financed the buying spree with at-the-market share sales, raising up to $425 million in a private placement led by Lubin’s crypto infrastructure developer Consensys.

Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, the Ethereum Foundation oversees protocol research and development for the world’s leading smart contract blockchain. It’s not the first time the EF has offloaded some of its ETH reserves, although direct sales to publicly traded companies are rare or unprecedented.

Shares of SBET were up 10% in pre-market trading after the announcement, Yahoo Finance data shows. The company is one of several firms, including names like GameSquare, Upexi, Bit Mining, and DeFi Development Corp, that are building altcoin-based corporate treasuries.