Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla sells of $40 million ETH as part of $250 million stock repurchase plan

ETHZilla (ticker ETHZ), the Ethereum digital asset treasury, has sold off approximately $40 million worth of its ether holdings to repurchase shares.

ETHZ closed up 14.5% and was higher by anther 9% at press time, according to Google Finance, to trade above $22.50. This price is still about one-fifth of a recent high of about $107, when the company first announced it would raise funds to build an Ethereum treasury.

The board of directors for ETHZilla, previously trading as 180 Life Sciences Corp., authorized a stock buyback plan of up to $250 million in August. ETHZilla repurchased approximately 600,000 shares of its common stock for approximately $12 million since selling ETH on Oct. 24.

"ETHZilla plans to use the remaining proceeds of its ETH sale for additional share repurchases and intends to continue to sell ETH to repurchase its shares until the discount to NAV is normalized," the firm said in a press release on Monday.

Chairman McAndrew Rudisill said the firm will continue to repurchase shares while ETHZ "trades at a significant discount to NAV," reducing the amount of common stock in circulation while also boosting its net asset valuation.

According to Monday’s release, the firm still holds approximately $400 million of ETH on its balance sheet. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund acquired a 7.5% stake in the firm in August.

ETHZilla is not the only ETH treasury to approve a stock repurchase plan. The second-largest ETH treasury, SharpLink Gaming (SBET), approved a stock repurchase program of up to $1.5 billion to buy back shares when its stock trades at or below the net asset value of its crypto holdings.