SharpLink Gaming announces $76.5 million capital raise and potential to more than double that
An analyst noted that “flows and positioning, not fundamentals, are shaping the ETH story right now.”
SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest ethereum treasury, with $3.4 billion worth in its stockpile, is adding fresh capital to fuel its crypto strategy.
On Thursday, the firm announced entering into a securities purchase agreement with an institutional investor for the purchase of 4.5 million shares at $17 per share, a 12% premium to the company’s stock price as of Wednesday’s close, which will net the company $76.5 million.
The investor is able to purchase an additional 4.5 million shares before January 15 at a 19% premium or an exercise price of $17.50 per share. If exercised, SharpLink will receive an added $78.8 million, according to a Thursday press release.
“By raising equity at a meaningful premium to both market price and NAV [net asset value], we’re able to continue accumulating ETH and increasing ETH-per-share for our investors,” SharpLink Co-CEO Joseph Chalom said.
SharpLink’s capital raise is “another example of how flows and positioning, not fundamentals, are shaping the ETH story right now,” said Simon Shockey, an analyst at Delphi Digital.
“If we see a classic alt rotation, ETH could still benefit as flows move down the risk curve after BTC,” Shockey said.
Shockey wouldn’t rule out a narrative shift that’s more favorable for ethereum given that there’s a “strong case” that the token is a store of value alongside or complementary to bitcoin, “but structurally, the investment case hasn’t materially strengthened from a fundamental perspective,” he argued.
“That said, I remain optimistic and a long-time believer in what ethereum has built and aims to accomplish.”
Suspected BitMine wallets stack ethereum
Meanwhile, three wallet addresses (0xcd4, 0xa16, and 0xF62) acquired over $76 million of ethereum from crypto custody firm BitGo in the last 24 hours, on-chain data shows.
Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence suspects the addresses belong to BitMine Immersion Technologies, as the “patterns match BitMine ETH acquisitions from BitGo,” the firm shared in a social media post. BitMine, holding over 2.5% of ethereum’s total supply, or $12.2 billion, takes the top belt among ethereum treasury companies.
