Crypto
The 2019 Concordia Annual Summit - Day 2
Joseph Lubin (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images)

SharpLink Gaming’s plans to buy $1 billion worth of ethereum send shares tumbling

The company aims to be the Strategy of ethereum.

Just days after announcing a $425 million funding for an ethereum treasury strategy, sportsbook marketing firm SharpLink Gaming revealed it intends to offer “up to $1 billion” in shares of its common stock to buy ethereum.

“We intend to use substantially all of the proceeds from this offering to acquire Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain commonly referred to as ‘ETH,’” the May 30 SEC filing reads.

SharpLink shares were down more than 36% as of 10:30 a.m. ET.

The company also announced last week that Joseph Lubin, the founder and CEO of Consensys and cofounder of ethereum, “will become Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company effective upon the closing of the private placement.” 

Ethereum has been on an upward trajectory lately and is up 36% from a month ago, though it’s still far away from its all-time high of $4,878 on November 10, 2021.

Experts note several drivers that could further boost the asset, including that “increased acceptance and usage of DeFi will further increase demand for ETH as a credibly neutral and permissionless collateral,” according to Tim Lowe, Strategic Advisor, Bitwise Onchain Solutions.

Lowe also said that 30% of the ethereum supply is currently locked in staking, further increasing scarcity and demand for the coin.

“This is before potential approval of staked ETH ETFs by the SEC, which could further add momentum to this asset,” Lowe said.

Update (June 3, 2025): Corrected attribution of quote to Tim Lowe instead of John McLeod.

More Crypto

See all Crypto
28

The decentralized finance ecosystem had a brutal April, logging the highest monthly number of exploits ever at 28 hacks, with exploiters siphoning off a total of $635.2 million, data from DefiLlama shows. 

The two largest exploits in April occurred on ethereum-based protocol KelpDAO and solana-native trading venue Drift. The incidents rattled on-chain users, as the total value locked in DeFi across all networks dropped from a monthly high of $99.5 billion to $84.3 billion on Friday. 

“It’s a real problem, and if AI proponents (thinking specifically of Anthropic’s claims about Mythos) are to be believed, it’s only going to get worse,” according to Fredrick Collins, CEO of crypto analytics platform Velo.xyz. Collins argued that these exploits act as a significant limiter of institutional appeal, pointing to TheBlock’s report last week that JPMorgan held a similar view. 

“It’s simple — for many people, having any chance that you lose your entire investment or balance in something supposed to be ‘safe’ is too much to bear,” Collins told Sherwood News. 

However, not everyone thinks the recent hacks will curb interest from institutions. Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at blockchain data firm Nansen, said to Sherwood, “I do not think these hacks will be a limit to institutional capital given the impact of AI and the speed at which threats appear stretch far beyond this industry.” 

Søndergaard continued, “Crypto to me seems to have been hit harder as many projects perhaps wanted to get a product out there quickly and didn’t invest enough in security, even with companies around to audit.” 

DeFi aims to enable internet users to have access to financial services, such as borrowing, lending, and trading, without any centralized intermediaries.

crypto

Riot Platforms rises following Q1 revenue beat

The bitcoin miner turned data center operator released first-quarter earnings that surpassed expectations for revenue. Shares built on strong gains from Thursday’s session in after-hours trading following the results.

Riot Platforms reported:

  • Q1 revenue of $167.2 million, growing 3.6% from the same quarter a year ago and surpassing analysts’ expectations of $131 million.

  • A diluted loss per share of $1.44, much worse than analysts’ consensus estimate of a $0.72 loss, which includes unrealized loss on its bitcoin holdings.

The bulk of companys revenue stems from its bitcoin mining activity, which made up $111.9 million in the quarter, while its data center housing revenue stood at $33.2 million, per its press release.

The first quarter of 2026 marks an inflection point for Riot. CFO Jason Chung said on Thursday in the firms Q1 earnings conference call, With the delivery of our first 5 megawatts to AMD this quarter, Riot is now an active data center operator, and for the first time, our top line now includes contracted lease revenue from an investment-grade tenant.

The earnings report comes the same week the company announced amending its $200 million credit agreement with Coinbase by replacing a floating interest rate with a fixed rate, according to an SEC filing dated on Monday.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.