Peter Thiel is doubling down on the rising “company Ethereum treasury” commerce. A recent Schedule 13G filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission reveals entities affiliated with Thiel’s Founders Fund have amassed a 7.5% passive stake in 180 Life Sciences Corp. (Nasdaq: ATNF), which is rebranding as ETHZilla and pivoting its enterprise to accumulating Ether and producing on-chain yield.
Peter Thiel Doubles Down On Ethereum
The disclosure, signed “/s/ Peter Thiel” on August 11, confirms useful possession throughout a number of Founders Fund automobiles totaling roughly 11.6 million ATNF shares—7.5% of the float. The market response was fast. ATNF shares greater than tripled on Tuesday, closing close to $10.24—about 207% above Monday’s shut—earlier than cooling in after-hours buying and selling.
ETHZilla’s pivot is just not theoretical. In a press launch furnished to the SEC on August 12, the corporate disclosed “whole holdings of 82,186 Ether (‘ETH’) at a median acquisition worth of $3,806.71,” valuing the place at roughly $349 million as of August 11. It additionally reported about $238 million in US greenback money equivalents on the stability sheet.
Executive chairman McAndrew Rudisill framed the technique as a purpose-built, institutional ETH reserve that will likely be actively deployed into staking and on-chain yield methods run by an exterior supervisor: “At ETHZilla we have now put over $350 million in capital to work because the PIPE transaction we accomplished final week… as we search to ship on our on-chain yield technology program by way of our exterior asset supervisor Electric Capital.”
Those disclosures cap a fast financing sequence backing the buildup plan. On August 4, ETHZilla closed a $425 million personal placement, adopted one week later by roughly $156 million of senior secured convertible notes due 2028. Each financing explicitly cited the aim of “quickly” growing the corporate’s ETH holdings.
Thiel’s transfer into ETHZilla arrives lower than a month after his group revealed a 9.1% passive stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE American: BMNR), essentially the most aggressive of the general public “ETH treasury” cohort. That earlier 13G equally listed Thiel as signatory and helped ignite a rally in BMNR.
Notably, The BitMine drumbeat grew louder once more this week. On Tuesday, the corporate filed to enlarge its at-the-market fairness program by one other $20 billion—lifting whole capability to $24.5 billion—to finance extra ETH accumulation. The enlargement was memorialized in a same-day Form 8-Ok and prospectus complement.
Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat and Chairman of the Board of Directors at BitMine, is pursuing one of many largest Ethereum accumulation methods in historical past by way of his firm. BitMine has already amassed about 1.2 million ETH—roughly $5 billion price—placing it 20% of the best way towards its goal of controlling 5% of Ethereum’s whole provide.
Taken collectively, the sign from Thiel is unambiguous. After the 9.1% BitMine disclosure in mid-July, the 7.5% ETHZilla stake marks his second materials guess on an Ethereum-first company treasury in lower than a month, displaying the type of high-conviction wager that ETH’s appreciation will outpace dilution, financing prices, and mark-to-market volatility—justifying aggressive balance-sheet accumulation now for outsized upside later.
At press time, ETH traded at $4,655.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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