Does Ethereum Have an Advantage over Bitcoin for Corporate Treasuries?

Ethereum is “getting its own MicroStrategy era,” said former developer Eric Conner on X on Tuesday, drawing comparison to the world’s leader in corporate Bitcoin accumulation: Michael Saylor’s Strategy.

The developer highlighted two “live experiments” of companies that have already started Ethereum treasuries, Tom Lee’s BitMine and Joe Lubin’s SharpLink.

These two could be the pioneers for the next wave of Ethereum treasury companies seeking additional yields on top of their digital asset investments.

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ChatGPT of Crypto

BitMine announced this week that the company is adding Fundstrat’s Tom Lee as Chairman. It also revealed plans for a $250 million private placement to stack Ethereum as part of the company’s treasury strategy, and its stock surged 400% as a result.

The firm will stake its ETH to earn extra income and will measure success using an “ETH per share” model of how much Ethereum each stock share represents. This is very similar to how Bitcoin treasury companies use BTC Yield to show stockholders.

Lee believes Ethereum will benefit as traditional finance moves onchain, stating that more tokenized dollars as stablecoins will increase demand for Ethereum.

“Stablecoins have proven to be the ‘ChatGPT’ of crypto, leading to rapid adoption by consumers, merchants, and financial services providers,” he said.

“We’re kind of like the plumbing of what banks will look like in the future because they will be staking Ethereum on their balance sheet of crypto in order to fund and operate their stablecoin.”

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BitMine’s mining DNA lets it spin up validators and “tap DeFi rails, turning a once-capital-intensive operation into a cash-flow engine secured by Ethereum,” said Conner.

Meanwhile, ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin is taking a bigger gamble with his gaming firm SharpLink, which raised $425 million to stack and stake Ethereum.

Conner concluded that this is just the beginning of the Ethereum treasury company phase, and more firms will follow.

“Firms are waking up to ETH’s combo of reserve asset and native yield. Expect the ETH-per-share scoreboard to get crowded fast.”

Ethereum Price Dips

Regardless of the clear impact on Ether supply and demand this will have, spot ETH prices remain lackluster.

ETH has lost 2.3% on the day, falling back below $2,400 during the Wednesday morning Asian trading session. However, it found support there, and downsides were limited.

The asset has done very little since it cleared $2,200 in early May, with some investors describing it as a “stablecoin.”

Even with the bullish fundamentals and institutional interest in the asset, many are clearly still selling at these prices.