Corporate treasuries are pushing Ether toward record highs - Trade Treasury Payments

Ether (ETH) is approaching its all-time high amid a wave of corporate treasury purchases. Companies such as BitMine Immersion and SharpLink Gaming are building multi-billion-dollar positions in the cryptocurrency, drawing comparisons to MicroStrategy’s early commitment to Bitcoin.

The total value of corporate Ether holdings has now passed $13 billion, with concentrated buying from a handful of firms pushing the price above $4,300, within sight of the record $4,891 it reached in November 2021. BitMine Immersion has become the largest holder, reporting more than 1.15 million ETH (worth roughly $4.9 billion), the first time a single corporate treasury has crossed the one-million-ETH mark. The company’s holdings have risen by 410 per cent in the past month.

SharpLink Gaming is also accelerating accumulation. Following an earlier $200 million deal, the firm has secured a further $400 million through an equity purchase agreement, giving it almost $900 million to deploy. Management expects its ETH holdings to exceed $3 billion in value once its acquisition plans are complete.

Analysts believe that favourable regulatory shifts are a considerable force driving this trend. This includes the approval of U.S. spot Ether ETFs and the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin framework, both of which have lowered regulatory risk and reinforced Ethereum’s case as a treasury asset. Ethereum’s applications for decentralised finance and smart contract activity, combined with the ability to generate yield through staking, have further reinforced its appeal.

Fundstrat co-founder and BitMine chairman Tom Lee has suggested the market could be entering Ethereum’s equivalent of Bitcoin’s 2017 breakout, with the potential for prices to rise as high as $30,000 if current conditions persist.

For corporate finance teams, ETH’s presence as a core treasury asset is a deviation from the long-standing reliance on cash and low-risk, short-term instruments. In addition to potential price appreciation, ETH holdings can produce staking rewards, creating a revenue stream unavailable from traditional treasury assets. 

While the current movement is concentrated among a small group of companies, projections from Standard Chartered indicate corporate treasuries could eventually hold as much as ten per cent of all ETH in circulation. That would be likely to change capital allocation strategies across multiple sectors.