In brief
- Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming aims to productively use its ETH holdings in 2026.
- The firm staked $170 million in ETH on Linea last week, and will seek out other opportunities to benefit shareholders in the future.
- SBET shares are up nearly 3% on Tuesday as ETH continues to rebound, recently trading above $3,200.
Publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming is aiming to “pioneer” the productive use of ETH by digital asset treasuries in 2026, after adding billions of dollars’ worth of the crypto asset last year.
The firm, which has amassed more than 865,000 ETH—about $2.75 billion worth as of Tuesday—since implementing its treasury strategy last May, kick-started its mission last week by deploying $170 million in ETH for elevated incentives and staking rewards on layer-2 network, Linea.
“2025 was a year that DATs did their initial accumulation, 2026 needs to be the year of productivity,” SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom said Tuesday on FOMO Hour, a show from Decrypt’s sister company, Rug Radio.
“We want to be pioneers,” he added. “What do I mean by pioneering ETH productivity? It turns out that in crypto, there are very, very few people that have long-term capital. We own at this point nearly $3 billion in what I call ‘permanent capital.’ We had an ability to do something no one had done before.”
In other words, the firm’s multi-year commitment to staking and its long-term outlook have provided opportunities that more short-term-focused institutions or investors would not have access to. And SharpLink aims to go even further in the future.
Though only $170 million of its treasury is currently staked on Linea, the firm has nearly all of its assets staked and earning yield via other protocols.
According to Chalom, SharpLink will continue operating with financial flexibility and optionality in mind, adding that some of the firm’s ETH “is going to stay in native staking, some of it is going to be in restaking, some of it is going to be in liquid restaking tokens, and I think we’re going to keep a portion of our portfolio to be opportunistic.”
That means SharpLink could soon act as a lender, providing financing or liquidity to other protocols who may need it.
“I think you’re going to see us push the efficient frontier of what you can do if you have ‘permanent capital,’” he said.
The yields generated from staking ETH allows Chalom, who joined SharpLink in July after leading BlackRock’s digital asset strategy, and the firm to weather crypto’s volatility, he said.
“We’re built so that when ETH goes up, our stock price benefits. When ETH goes down, we have no reason to sell,” he said. “And when it goes down, it’s a buying opportunity. We’re built for both cycles.”
Shares in the firm (SBET) have risen 2.7% on Tuesday to recently change hands at $10.53, but have fallen around 51% in the last six months. ETH is up 3% in the last 24 hours, recently trading at $3,206.
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