Wall Street is using its Bitcoin playbook to bet on Ethereum
Inspired by the success of businesses like MicroStrategy, which has seen its stock surge more than 3,000% since it pivoted to buying Bitcoin instead of developing software, other publicly traded companies are now betting on an even more volatile cryptocurrency: Ethereum.
And some taking the risky move are saying it’s a “Chat GPT moment for crypto” — because they believe the product is going to become ubiquitous and highly valued in just a few months.
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“Ethereum, to me, is really gonna be where Wall Street meets crypto,” Tom Lee of BitMine Immersion Technologies told me.
Lee joined BitMine Immersion Technologies last week as chairman following the company’s rebrand from a Bitcoin mining company to a focus on acquiring what they believe is the real gold, Ethereum.
And if the stock price is any indication, it seems to be working. Since announcing its pivot to Ethereum, BitMine Immersion Technologies’ stock climbed 25%. Bit Digital, a publicly traded company that previously focused on computing infrastructure and, at one point Bitcoin mining, saw its shares surge nearly 30% after announcing it was moving to an Ethereum treasury management and staking strategy.
Likewise, SharpLink Gaming, a former sports betting and online casino marketing company, saw its stock surge over 400% after announcing a shift to an Ethereum treasury strategy in May 2025, though it has since experienced significant volatility.
Other companies, including the crypto exchange Coinbase and fin-tech companies Exodus Movement and Mogo, have also acquired Ethereum and begun holding it on their balance sheets.
Unlike Bitcoin, which is primarily a digital currency focused on secure, peer-to-peer transactions without supporting complex apps, Ethereum is a high-tech blockchain platform powering apps, smart contracts and its currency, Ether.
It enables three key features: staking, or locking up Ether to secure the network and earn rewards, similar to interest on savings; stablecoins, or Ether-based coins pegged to $1 for stable transactions or savings; and NFTs, which are unique digital assets, like a one-of-a-kind Pokémon card, stored on Ethereum to prove ownership.
Large wealth managers restricted by SEC rules from buying crypto can invest in companies holding Ethereum to gain exposure to both the cryptocurrency and its technology, which supports stablecoins, staking and decentralized finance applications.
“Ethereum offers something unique: It’s a productive asset,” Mara Schmiedt, the CEO and co-founder of Alluvia, told me. “Staking delivers a 3%+ baseline yield … forward-looking companies aren’t just holding ETH, they’re integrating it into how they generate yield, manage capital and future-proof their businesses.”
And following the June IPO of Circle — the most successful stablecoin company of the last five years — this is big business.
Lorien Gabel, the co-founder and CEO of Figment, the largest global staking infrastructure provider, told me staking is emerging as “the center of global banking for digital assets.”
“Protocol staking enables institutions to earn rewards,” he explained. “For traditional finance investors like asset managers, staking represents a compliant, reward-generating strategy that provides direct exposure to the economic activity of decentralized systems.”
Schmiedt said she is working with Galaxy Digital to launch staking financial products — basically a bundled-up and traded staking program, similar to a mortgage-backed security.
And for Wall Street, which loves complex financial tools (derivatives, anyone?), this could be a whole new world.
“We’re in the early innings of a treasury strategy evolution for public and private companies,” Schmiedt said. “Companies like SharpLink, Bit Digital and BitMine are signaling that institutional narratives around Ethereum are maturing. Ethereum and staking are quickly becoming new tools for shareholder value creation in an on-chain financial system for corporate treasuries and beyond.”
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Of course, the sheer number of companies that are jumping on this bandwagon feels vaguely reminiscent of the blockchain craze, when Long Island Iced Tea rebranded to Long Blockchain Corp. and saw its stock surge 200%. Or when little-known, publicly traded companies with the phrase “AI” in their names, like BigBearAI and C3.ai, saw stock surge shortly after the introduction of ChatGPT.
But Ethereum enthusiasts believe the crypto is a good bet both because of its inherent value and because of the rewards it offers. And if the heavyweights who bought into BitMine are any indication, it has serious backers.
“[The pivot to Ethereum] reflects the convergence that’s taking place between traditional finance and crypto — where crypto, venture funds and traditional finance are meeting in the middle,” Lee added. “The mix of investors reflects that as well.”
BitMine Immersion recently secured $250 million from prominent backers including Mosaics Group (a discretionary macro hedge fund), Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, Falcon X, Kraken and Republic Digital, as well as traditional funds like Ockham Crest and Diametric Capital.
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