The crypto bet “Ethereum en Bourse” has just lost its most vocal sponsor. Peter Thiel and entities related to Founders Fund have divested their entire stake in ETHZilla, according to a Form 13G filed with the SEC.
In brief
- Thiel completely sold his stake in ETHZilla, and the stock tanked.
- “Ethereum Cash” Strategy Has Slided Into Selling and Deleveraging
- The company is now trying to reinvent itself through the tokenization of real assets.
Thiel exits, the market decides
Thiel is no longer in the capital. And the market did not wait for a well-crafted press release to react. In pre-opening, ETHZilla stock dropped around 7%, around $3.20. This level is not trivial. He recalls how quickly the story burned out, to the point that Vitalik himself called for excesses to be avoided. The stock had exceeded $107 in August, before falling suddenly towards the $3 zone.
In this type of case, psychology counts as much as the balance sheets. When the star investor exits, the market rarely reads “profit taking”. Instead it reads “history changes hands”. And that, in crypto, can be enough to trigger a sell-off.
ETHZilla was not born crypto. The company was called 180 Life Sciences and pivoted, rebranded, with a new ticker and an assumed Ethereum treasury strategy. In August 2025, the setting was almost perfect. The company announced an official Ethereum strategy and a total fundraising of around $565 million, touted as fuel for massive accumulation.
The problem is that the typical MicroStrategy playbook works when the narrative remains consistent for quarters. Here, the trajectory was hit. The title lived on the announcement effect, then on the reality of a listed vehicle exposed to volatility, financing, and the limited patience of the markets.
From a crypto ETH reserve to defensive sales
The most telling turn isn't Thiel's exit. This is what preceded it. Since October, ETHZilla has been reducing its ether holdings through multiple sales, instead of stacking.
In October, the company sold approximately $40 million worth of ETH to support a board-authorized stock buyback plan. On paper, it's “pro-shareholders”. In the narration, it is above all an admission: the action must be defended.
Then in December, ETHZilla sold 24,291 ETH (approximately $74.5 million) to repay secured convertible bonds. When crypto cash is used to put out financial fires, the message is clear: the priority is no longer accumulation, but survival.
The last pivot: tokenizing “real” to put the pieces back together
After the “we accumulate ETH crypto” phase, ETHZilla now highlights the tokenization of real assets. In February 2026, the company announced the purchase of a portfolio of 95 real estate loans (manufactured and modular homes) for approximately $4.7 million, with planned tokenization on layer 2 of Ethereum.
The yield displayed, around 10.36% annualized, is attractive on a slide. But it is a change of nature. We are moving from a “direct exposure to ETH” vehicle to a company that must execute, structure, distribute, and convince on tokenized products. It's no longer the same job.
Meanwhile, the company remains a heavyweight on the corporate treasury side in ether, with around 69,802 ETH according to specialized monitoring. In other words, it remains fully exposed to crypto… but attempts to construct a narrative less attached to the price of ETH alone. And Thiel's exit comes at the worst time: precisely when this new story needs time to convince, as market sentiment towards crypto hits a critical point.
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