SharpLink puts $200M of ETH on-chain with Linea, ether.fi and EigenCloud to boost yield

SharpLink, a Nasdaq-listed digital asset treasury company, said it has deployed $200 million in ETH on-chain through qualified custodian Anchorage Digital, entering a two-year yield-enhancement arrangement with Linea, ether.fi and EigenCloud. Chief Investment Officer Matt Sheffield said the strategy is designed to generate ETH-denominated returns above native staking while establishing an institution-grade, compliance-focused playbook for participating in DeFi. He described SharpLink’s central KPI as "ETH per share," arguing that ETH that is not staked is effectively unproductive. Sheffield said SharpLink believes Ethereum is materially undervalued and has chosen to allocate nearly its entire treasury to ETH to maximize long-term shareholder value. He characterized the firm as distinct from bitcoin-focused treasury strategies that rely on financial engineering, adding that SharpLink is targeting more linear, accumulated returns. He said the company has no debt and currently earns roughly $1 million per day from staking. On risk, Sheffield said SharpLink does not face liquidation triggers typical of leverage structures such as convertibles or preferred shares. He added that recurring staking income and additional on-chain activity are key reasons the company prefers holding ETH on its balance sheet. Sheffield said the firm is already earning more ETH than the native staking rate by taking modest incremental risk through multi-year DeFi deployments. He framed native staking yield as crypto’s "risk-free" benchmark and said the goal is to outperform it on a risk-adjusted basis. SharpLink previously disclosed a $170 million Linea deployment and has since increased the size to $200 million, adding $30 million after the initial announcement. Sheffield said the structure prioritizes operational security and institutional controls: SharpLink sought to conduct the transaction without moving assets out of Anchorage Digital, minting within the custodian and bridging cross-chain via LayerZero while avoiding hot wallets. He said this approach is intended to raise the bar for how public companies engage with DeFi. Addressing reporting and regulatory constraints for listed companies, Sheffield said SharpLink coordinates closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure compliance, noting differences in accounting treatment between native staking revenue and liquid staking tokens, which are generally classified as intangible assets and may be subject to impairment. He said the firm moves deliberately given the complexity. On the broader ETH investment case, Sheffield pointed to real-world asset (RWA) tokenization as a major driver, arguing the industry remains early in the shift of financial assets on-chain and that Ethereum is positioned at the center. He cited BlackRock’s stated ambition to tokenize assets and noted that the firm’s ETF complex totals $4.5 trillion, several times larger than today’s RWA market capitalization. Sheffield also addressed investor concerns around unrealized losses driven by ETH price declines, saying SharpLink has emphasized transparency and education so shareholders understand the strategy. He cited institutional ownership data from 13F filings, saying institutional holders were 56% after a June filing last year and are 46% in the most recent filing, with some large institutions entering with limited prior digital-asset exposure. He said SharpLink aims to be a regulated, transparent vehicle for investors who want long exposure to Ethereum. Sheffield said he has experience in Asia and sees strong demand across the region, highlighting interest observed at Consensus Hong Kong in February, as well as meetings in South Korea and Japan. He added that recent discussions in the Gulf with major institutions and sovereign funds have focused on Ethereum, SharpLink and local ecosystem development, and said regulators in Hong Kong and the Gulf are actively working on frameworks to support safe innovation. Beyond ETH itself, Sheffield said SharpLink is focused on the on-chain ecosystem around Ethereum, including RWA and smart payments, and aims to deploy long-duration, ETH-denominated capital with partners building across the EVM—seeking to increase ETH per share while supporting broader ecosystem growth.