Sharplink Gaming (SBET), which became the first public company to establish an Ethereum treasury, hasn’t had it easy since making this major move. The company’s shares have plummeted amid reports that investors plan to offload their stocks following the creation of the ETH Treasury.
Sharplink Gaming’s Stock Plummets Following Ethereum Treasury Move
In an X post, Steven Lubka, the VP of investor relations at Nakamoto, drew the crypto community’s attention to the 72% drop in Sharplink Gaming’s stock after hours. Based on the SBET stock crash, he opined that a Bitcoin Treasury Reserve is a better strategy than an Ethereum Treasury Reserve.
Bitcoinist reported that Sharplink had launched a $425 million Ethereum reserve plan and, in the process, became the first public company to establish an ETH reserve. The company had completed the private placement offering earlier this month to raise this sum for the reserve plan. The company also appointed Joseph Lubin, the founder and CEO of Consensys, as the Chairman following the deal.
Rumors had emerged that participants in the private placement offering were looking to offload the shares that they had bought. In an X post, Journalist Steven revealed that basically every participant in SBET’s private placement has filed to dump all their shares less than a month after the Ethereum Treasury Strategy move.
Revelation of this filing may have caused panic, which contributed to the SBET stock crash after hours. It is worth mentioning that Sharplink Gaming plans to further boost its ETH Treasury Reserve. The company has filed a $1 billion shelf offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to accumulate more Ethereum. The company will raise this sum through the sale of its common shares.
Joseph Lubin Addresses Stock Sale Rumors
In an X post, Joseph Lubin addressed rumors that his company was planning to sell SBET stocks from the private placement offered by the Ethereum Treasury company. The Consensys CEO explained that some people were misinterpreting the S-3 filing, noting that the filing registers shares for potential resale by prior investors.
Lubin added that the “Shares Owned After the Offering” column is hypothetical, assuming the full sale of the registered shares. He remarked that this is standard post-PIPE procedure in traditional finance (TradFi) and not an indication of actual sales. In line with this, the Consensys CEO clarified that they have not sold any shares, while declaring support for the Ethereum Treasury company.
Despite the setback for the ETH Treasury company, MarketWatch data shows that the SBET stock is up over 300% year-to-date (YTD). The stock is also up over 1,000% since Sharplink Gaming adopted Ethereum as a reserve asset.
At the time of writing, the Ethereum price is trading at around $2,500, down over 8% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
