Biotech Stock Plunges on Bitcoin Plans as Ethereum Treasuries Stay Hot

Bitcoin hit a new record high price on Wednesday, and Ethereum may be poised to do the same very soon. But as ETH treasury firms’ stocks have surged on the recent market momentum, shares of at least one of their BTC counterparts are trending in the opposite direction. 

Lixte Biotechnology’s stock (LIXT) finished the day trading 16% lower at $4.06 per share on Wednesday, shortly after the clinical-stage pharmaceutical firm announced its plan to allocate up to 25% of its reserves to a Bitcoin treasury, Yahoo Finance data shows.

The LIXT sell-off comes as investors appear to pivot from Bitcoin to Ethereum-based treasury firms, as ETH rides recent tailwinds to outperform the world’s oldest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin treasuries were all the rage until recently, when a new crop of firms embraced ETH—and apparently helped fuel the coin’s recent gains.

“2025 is the year of the Ethereum treasury reserve strategy,” Bitwise Research Analyst Danny Nelson told Decrypt. 

“The simple reason is momentum,” Nelson explained. “Ethereum’s got it in a way Bitcoin doesn’t.” 

Ethereum was recently trading at $4,763, up 58% this month and 75% over the past year. The token is hovering less than 3% below its all-time high of $4,878 hit in November 2021 as of writing time, according to data provider CoinGecko. 

By comparison, Bitcoin has remained largely flat, up just 2% over the past month. While BTC indeed set a fresh milestone on Wednesday, its recent gains have been muted compared to the wild upward swing seen by ETH—a coin that had largely been on the sidelines as Bitcoin and other coins surged earlier this year.

Ethereum’s comparatively strong gains have been fueled by investors’ perception of ETH as being “uniquely suited” to ride the recent stablecoin business boom, Nelson said, as well as “farm the regulatory green fields” of SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ Project Crypto initiative to overhaul the U.S.’ regulatory guardrails for the cryptocurrency industry.

Ethereum treasury boom

Ethereum treasury companies now hold nearly 3% of the total circulating ETH supply, per data from Strategic ETH Reserve. And that figure is poised to grow significantly: In the past week, BitMine Immersion, which now holds more than $5 billion in ETH, announced that it is selling another $20 billion worth of its common stock to buy even more tokens for its corporate treasury. 

And as companies have invested more into ETH, their stock prices have also swelled. 

Ethereum treasury firms ETHZilla aka 180 Life Sciences (ATNF), BitMine Immersion (BMNR) and SharpLink Gaming (SBET) have seen their shares rise 211%, 48%, and 8% over the last five trading days, respectively.

By comparison, leading Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy has seen its stock price stay nearly flat over the last week, down nearly 14% over the last month.

The recent flood of funds into Ethereum and their corporate holders “points to swings in investor interest,” Nelson told Decrypt. 

“They want a piece of the best-performing large-cap crypto asset of recent months,” he said.