From "Money Tree" to "ATM"? ETHZilla sells $74.5 million ETH to pay off debts, triggering a major test of the corporate encryption treasury model.

The crypto market is witnessing a dramatic divergence in corporate holdings strategies. ETHZilla, a company once backed by Peter Thiel and whose stock price skyrocketed, recently submitted documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), revealing that it has sold $74.5 million worth of Ethereum to pay off debts. This marks another cash-out for the company following its $40 million Ethereum sell-off at the end of October, with its holdings greatly diminished from their peak. In stark contrast, another giant, Bitmine Immersion, is accumulating Ethereum at an unprecedented rate, with its holdings surpassing 4.06 million coins, worth approximately $13.2 billion, accounting for 3.37% of the global total supply, firmly securing its position as the largest Ethereum treasury among enterprises worldwide. This extreme phenomenon of “one selling, one hoarding” not only reveals the differences in survival strategies among various companies during the crypto winter but also prompts a profound reflection on the sustainability of the business model of “publicly traded companies' crypto treasuries.”

Star Finance “Fading”: The Pressure and Transformation Behind ETHZilla's Selling of Ethereum

Once a shining star, ETHZilla's trajectory resembles a roller coaster. This company, headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida, was originally a biotechnology firm, and after announcing a strategic transformation on August 18, 2025, to focus on accumulating Ethereum as a digital asset treasury, its stock price skyrocketed from $30 to over $100 in just a few days, becoming a hot topic in the market. However, just four months later, the shine quickly faded. According to the latest SEC filings, ETHZilla sold $74.5 million worth of Ethereum to repay its senior secured convertible notes. As of December 19, its Ethereum holdings were approximately 69,800 coins, valued at around $210 million at current market prices, significantly reduced from its peak holdings.

This latest dumping is not an isolated incident but a continuous action under the liquidity pressure of ETHZilla. As early as the end of October, the company had sold approximately $40 million worth of Ethereum to fund a stock buyback plan. Behind the continuous cashing out is the company's stock price which has been on a downward trend. As of this Monday, its stock price has fallen to about $6.38, a drop of over 90% from its peak. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the dumping behavior, stating only that it will continue to evaluate various financing strategies, including selling Ethereum and issuing equity, to fulfill its business plans such as “tokenization of real-world assets.” This clearly indicates that when market sentiment reverses and stock price support is no longer there, the cryptocurrency that was once hailed as a strategic asset first plays the role of an “emergency ATM.”

The case of ETHZilla is not an isolated incident; it reflects the predicament of many followers during the last round of “corporate treasury fever.” Its model is essentially a crude imitation of MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor's “Bitcoin standard” strategy. However, when the crypto market plummeted in early October, a fundamental question arose: Should a token receive a higher valuation simply because it is held by a publicly listed company? The market's answer is no. For companies lacking a clear profit model and relying solely on the narrative of rising asset prices, investors' patience wears thin in a bear market. The dumping of ETHZilla is a passive choice under pressure and a severe stress test of its own business model.

The Frenzy on the Other Side: Why Bitmine Is Hoarding 4 Million Ether Against the Trend?

In stark contrast to the predicament of ETHZilla is Bitmine Immersion's near-manic pace of accumulation. According to company disclosures and CoinGecko tracking data, Bitmine's Ethereum holdings have exceeded 4.066 million ETH, with a total value, including other crypto assets and cash, reaching as high as $13.2 billion. Even more striking is the speed of their accumulation: they have added 98,852 ETH in just the past week, and over 506,000 ETH in the past 30 days. This “whale-like” buying has brought their holdings to more than 4.7 times that of the second-place SharpLink (which holds about 860,000 ETH), creating a significant leading edge in the major corporate Ethereum treasury.

Bitmine's aggressive strategy is based on a long-term narrative that is completely different from the short-term sentiment of the market. The company refers to its ultimate goal as “5% Alchemy”, which aims to control 5% of the total global supply of Ethereum. Its current 3.37% share has made this goal no longer distant. Crucially, Bitmine's accumulation has shown a significant divergence from the fund flows of Ethereum spot ETFs. According to SoSoValue data, since October, Ethereum ETFs have consistently experienced daily net outflows, with multiple trading days seeing outflows exceeding $300 million, causing total net assets to shrink from a high of $31 billion to $18 billion. Against the backdrop of weak ETF demand, Bitmine's buying behavior resembles a “left-side layout”, accumulating chips in a weak market and betting on future structural value.

This differentiation reveals the different logics of two types of capital. The funding for Ethereum ETFs is more “hot money,” sensitive to short-term prices, chasing rises and selling on dips; while companies like Bitmine attempt to act as “strategic hoarders,” with operations based on longer-term balance sheet management and a fundamental belief in the Ethereum ecosystem. Bitmine's capital strength also provides support, with its stock BMNR recently seeing active trading, with daily transaction volumes reaching 1.7 billion USD, providing ample financing capability and liquidity. Therefore, the case of Bitmine demonstrates a possibility: when a company has strong capital operation capabilities and a clear long-term vision, the crypto treasury model can go beyond simple “holding for a rise” and evolve into a proactive strategic tool that influences market structure.

The Corporate Crypto Vault at the Crossroads: Model Differentiation and Survival Challenges

ETHZilla and Bitmine represent a positive and negative example, clearly outlining the differentiated landscape of the “corporate encryption treasury” model under the dual pressure of global macro tightening and cyclical adjustments in the industry. This “micro-strategy script,” which has been imitated by hundreds of companies, is undergoing a brutal process of distinguishing the real from the fake.

Comparison of Mainstream Enterprises' Ethereum Holdings and Strategies in the Crypto Market

First, the health of the capital structure has become a lifeline. The direct reason for ETHZilla's dumping is the debt pressure from repaying the “senior secured convertible notes.” This indicates that companies leveraging the purchase of cryptocurrencies by issuing high-yield bonds or convertible notes will face a double squeeze when interest rates are high and cryptocurrency prices are falling. In contrast, Bitmine and MicroStrategy relied more on equity financing or cash reserves during the peak accumulation period, resulting in relatively less debt pressure. MicroStrategy has also recently paused its Bitcoin purchases and built up cash reserves to pay the hefty interest from previous securities issuances, which is also a defensive posture.

Secondly, the “narrative loop” between stock prices and coin prices has been broken. In a bull market, companies announcing the purchase of cryptocurrencies can boost stock prices, and rising stock prices can provide more funding to buy more cryptocurrencies, creating a positive cycle. However, in a bear market, falling coin prices drag down stock prices, plummeting stock prices weaken financing capabilities, and even trigger pledge or debt crises, quickly reversing the cycle into a vicious one. The plummeting stock price of ETHZilla and the forced selling are typical manifestations of this vicious cycle. The market is beginning to demand that such companies prove whether they possess independent commercial value and cash flow generation capabilities, aside from holding crypto assets.

Finally, the difference between strategic determination and capital duration determines success or failure. Bitmine dares to buy heavily during market panic, stemming from its clear long-term goals and support from long-term capital. In contrast, many latecomers like ETHZilla base their strategies more on trend speculation, lacking the capital buffer and strategic patience to withstand cycles. When the tide recedes, it will be evident whose strategy is a true “treasury strategy” and whose is merely a “leveraged bet”. This differentiation signals that the corporate crypto treasury sector will undergo a reshuffle, with only a few players who are well-capitalized, have clear strategies, and stable management able to navigate the cycles.

Market Impact and Future Insights: From “Holdings Narrative” to “Value Creation”

The extreme cases of the two companies provide profound reflections for the entire crypto market. For investors, blindly chasing any company that announces a transformation into a “crypto treasury” will become a high-risk behavior. The key analysis points must shift from “how many coins it bought” to more fundamental questions: Is its balance sheet robust? How high are the financing costs? Is the long-term strategy clear and sustainable? The lessons from ETHZilla indicate that aggressive holdings under high debt can quickly turn into disaster in adverse conditions.

For the industry, this differentiation may prompt the “enterprise crypto treasury” model to evolve in a more mature and complex direction. A simple narrative of asset accumulation is no longer sufficient; successful companies in the future may need to demonstrate their ability to create additional value through cryptocurrencies, such as:

• Effective Utilization of Assets: Such as earning returns through secure staking or exploring compliant income strategies in DeFi.
• Ecological Integration: Combining held crypto assets with the company’s core business (such as payments, supply chain, data verification) to create synergies.
• Financial Instrument Innovation: For example, Metaplanet issues preferred shares linked to Bitcoin holdings, transforming volatile assets into financial products that generate stable cash flow.

From a more macro perspective, Bitmine's counter-cyclical accumulation and the continuous outflow of Ethereum ETFs constitute a core contradiction in the current market. It may indicate that the dominant forces in the market are quietly shifting: the ETF craze driven by retail investors and short-term speculative capital is temporarily receding, while a more discreet “whale-style accumulation” led by long-term strategic capital is quietly emerging. Although this accumulation does not directly reflect in short-term prices, it is building a more solid foundation for the next cycle.

In conclusion, the dumping of ETHZilla is not the end of the story, but rather an inevitable footnote for the industry's transition from frenzy to maturity. It marks the end of the wild growth era of the “corporate crypto treasury” phenomenon and enters a new phase where financial health, strategic depth, and real value creation are the criteria for evaluation. For market participants, understanding this differentiation and identifying the risks and opportunities within it is far more important than guessing short-term rises and falls. In the crypto world, those who survive are often not the fastest or the strongest, but the most adaptive and resilient.