July 23, 2025, The sporting and online gaming hub called SharpLink Gaming has taken a huge step in the crypto world by buying 79,949 Ethereal (ETH) valued at approximately 259 million in a single sale. The acquisition will boost the existing SharpLink Ethereum holdings to 360,807 ETH, worth approximately 1.3 billion, currently based on CoinGecko.
The acquisition set what was then a record in terms of amount spent purchasing Ether and put SharpLink back on top as the most publicly traded Ether holder in the world, edging out BitMine Immersion Technologies, which had overtaken SharpLink a few days before.
SharpLink and BitMine Battle for ETH Dominance
SharpLink’s purchase was made at an average price of $3,238 per ETH, following another $49 million ETH buy the week before. The company’s aggressive strategy comes in response to BitMine’s announcement last Thursday that it held 300,657 ETH, valued at over $1 billion, after completing a $250 million private placement raise on June 30.
Just last week, SharpLink had reported 280,706 ETH, placing it second behind BitMine for the first time. The latest purchase now puts it comfortably back in first place.
CoinGecko is yet to re-rank accordingly to give SharpLink its new haul of ETH, but the revival of the company is likely to spell an increased competition between publicly traded companies to be the “MicroStrategy of Ether,” a title that refers to the approach of Michael Saylor at MicroStrategy Inc. toward Bitcoin investments.
Institutional Interest Soars: Cathie Wood and Peter Thiel Join the Game
The ETH accumulation race is also drawing high-profile investors. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest acquired 4.4 million shares of BitMine (BMNR) this week, a stake worth nearly $175 million. Last week, billionaire investor Peter Thiel also made headlines after buying 5.09 million shares, representing a 9% stake in BitMine.
This wave of institutional interest has caused BitMine stock to surge over 700% this month, briefly crossing $140 on July 3 before correcting to $39.60 at the time of reporting. In comparison, SharpLink (SBET) shares are up 130% in the past month, closing at around $26 on Monday.
SharpLink’s Strategic Shift and Ethereum Bet
SharpLink, founded in 2019, was originally a performance marketing company in the sports betting sector. However, in June 2025, the company pivoted sharply toward building a corporate ETH treasury. This came shortly after closing a $425 million private funding round led by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, who has since joined the company’s board as chairman.
BitMine in comparison, is a crypto mining and hosting company that also started in 2019. It also just hired such crypto bull Tom Lee, the founder of Fundstrat to serve as the board chairman of its Ethereum treasury.
The two firms currently lead the ETH corporate accumulation trend just as back when many firms were Bitcoin-centered (MicroStrategy).
With increased competition, the huge buy confirms that SharpLink is actually invested in Ethereum as a primary asset and the race to amass ETH has just begun.
