In brief
- Ethereum treasury companies have acquired 1% of all ETH in circulation in just two months, with holdings worth nearly $9 billion approaching 2% of total supply.
- Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick predicts ETH treasury holdings could grow 10-fold to eventually own 10% of all ETH, potentially pushing prices above $4,000.
- Leading treasury companies include Peter Thiel-backed BitMine ($2B+ in ETH) and SharpLink ($1.3B), with institutional appeal driven by staking rewards and DeFi utility despite regulatory risks.
It’s taken Ethereum treasury companies only two months to buy up 1% of all the ETH in circulation. In fact, at the time of writing, total ETH strategic reserves are worth nearly $9 billion and are already teetering on accounting for 2% of the total supply, according to Strategic ETH Reserve.
That’s got Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, optimistic that the category will grow tenfold.
“If the flows can continue, ETH may be able to break above the key $4,000 level (our current end-2025 forecast),” he wrote.
The current pace at which ETH treasury companies are growing is double that of Bitcoin treasury companies, Kendrick wrote in a note shared with Decrypt. Since June, the two largest Ethereum treasury companies have been Peter Thiel-backed BitMine, which has amassed more than $2 billion worth of ETH, and SharpLink, which has reached $1.3 billion.
Kendrick reasoned that buying Ethereum has been attractive for institutions because of regulatory inefficiencies and the possibility of ETH holdings capturing staking rewards or having utility in DeFi, he said.
It’s worth noting, though, the same reasons Kendrick says ETH is particularly attractive to corporations are the ones Bernstein has cited as sources of risk. Analysts at the firm noted Monday that it can take days to unstake ETH and that participating in DeFi means treasury companies need to take on responsibility of managing smart contract risk.
But for the companies that are comfortable mitigating those risks, there’s much to be gained, Kendrick said.
“We think ETH treasury companies have even more growth potential than BTC ones from a regulatory arbitrage perspective,” he wrote. “We think they may eventually end up owning 10% of all ETH, a 10x increase from current holdings.”
At the time of writing, the rally has paused for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. Ethereum is currently changing hands for $3,861.40 after having gained 0.5% in the past day, according to price aggregator CoinGecko.
Crypto analytics platform CoinGlass, which also tracks derivatives trading, puts ETH trading volume at $112 billion in the past day—a 19% gain in the past 24 hours.
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