Ethzilla Stock Plummets 15% After $74.5M Ethereum Sale

Ethzilla’s precipitous drop was triggered by a filing with the SEC revealing the sale of approximately 24,291 Ethereum tokens for $74.5 million, executed at an average price of around $3,069 per ETH. The company stated the sole purpose was to redeem outstanding senior secured convertible notes, using “all, or a significant portion, of the proceeds” for the debt repayment. This transaction slashed its Ethereum holdings by roughly 26%, leaving it with about 69,800 ETH and causing it to fall to the tenth-largest Ether DAT, now positioned below BTCS Inc., which holds 70,000 ETH.

The sale is part of a fundamental strategic shift for Ethzilla. In a statement on Monday, the company explicitly downplayed the future importance of its crypto treasury, asserting that “its value will be driven by revenue and cash flow growth from our RWA [real world asset] tokenization business.” This pivot marks a stark reversal from its origins; Ethzilla only transitioned from biotechnology to an Ether-focused strategy in July 2024 after its biotech shares collapsed. The company’s stock briefly spiked over $100 in August following the crypto pivot but has been in a near-continuous decline since, exacerbated by the falling price of Ethereum itself.

Ethzilla’s struggles are emblematic of a painful week for the entire crypto treasury sector. The world’s largest Ether DAT, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), saw its stock fall 4.2% on Tuesday, closing below $30. While Bitmine shares remain up 280% for the year, they are down 78% from their July peak. Notably, the firm, chaired by prominent analyst Tom Lee, has maintained a bullish stance, continuing to “buy the dips” and accumulate more Ether while peers sell.

The sell-off was not confined to Ethereum-focused firms. Solana DATs were hit hard, with Classover Holdings Inc (KIDZ) plunging 15% and VisionSys AI Inc (VSA) dumping 13% on Tuesday. Other notable decliners included Hyperlink DAT Nuvve Holding Corp (NVVE), which lost 12%, and Eightco Holdings (ORBS)—a WLD (Worldcoin) Treasury—which fell 11%. This synchronized downturn reflects investor anxiety over the underlying asset values held by these companies, as major cryptocurrencies like ETH have retreated sharply from recent highs.

The dramatic de-risking by Ethzilla and the sector-wide slump occur against a bleak macroeconomic backdrop for digital assets. Ethereum has once again fallen below the psychologically significant $3,000 level and is down approximately 40% from its all-time high in August. This decline has led many analysts to predict the start of a sustained bear market, increasing pressure on companies like Ethzilla that hold large, depreciating crypto inventories on their balance sheets.

For Ethzilla, the path forward is now explicitly tied to its nascent RWA tokenization business, a complete departure from its original biotech focus and its brief tenure as a pure-play crypto treasury. The company’s staggering 95% loss in share value since August represents a brutal market verdict on its strategic maneuvers. As it burns through its Ethereum reserves to stabilize its finances, the firm’s future hinges entirely on its ability to generate tangible revenue from tokenizing real-world assets—a promise yet to be proven in a market that has grown deeply skeptical.