Key takeaways:
SharpLink Gaming establishes the first ETH treasury, backed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin. SharpLink will invest $425 million to acquire 120,000 ETH.
Ethereum futures open interest hits an all-time high of $36.1 billion, with ETH price climbing 4.5% on the daily chart.
Nasdaq-listed SharpLink Gaming (SBET) announced a $425 million private investment in public equity (PIPE), acquiring approximately 69.1 million shares at $6.15 each to establish the first Nasdaq-listed Ethereum (ETH) treasury company.
Spearheaded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, this move mirrors Strategy’s (MSTR) successful Bitcoin treasury strategy, which has yielded over $8.2 billion in gains in 2025, by leveraging stock and bond sales to acquire BTC.
Former Ethereum core developer and contributor Eric Conner highlighted the bullish implications of SharpLink’s move, noting its potential to create a “public ETH proxy for funds that can’t hold tokens directly.”
Conner emphasized that the acquisition of 120,000 ETH — likely to be staked — could lead to “supply compression” by removing tokens from circulation. The Ether proponent also pointed to the “new narrative fuel” this provides, positioning ETH as a “digital reserve collateral” and potentially driving its adoption on mainstream balance sheets through an equity wrapper like $SBET.
However, crypto analyst VICTOR cautioned against over-enthusiasm, outlining the risk of leveraging gains from an altcoin still down 19% in 2025.
In Q1 2025, Cointelegraph reported a sharp decline in Ethereum network fees, dropping to $605,000 from $2.5 million in just two weeks in March, alongside a noticeable decrease in decentralized app (DApp) activity. Although average daily fees on the Ethereum chain have stayed above $1 million since May 9, 2025, fees remain significantly lower compared to Q1 2024, as highlighted in the chart.
Related: Ethereum flashes ‘altseason’ signal as ETH price eyes $4.1K
Ethereum open interest prints new highs as ETH targets $3K
The SharpLink announcement triggered a surge in Ethereum futures market activity. Ether futures open interest (OI) hit a new all-time high of $36.1 billion, increasing $3.5 billion in 24 hours. Ether OI has increased by 72% over the past month, reflecting heightened trader activity.
Ether prices are also up 4.50% for the day, and Maartuun, a community analyst at CryptoQuant, indicated the likelihood of a leveraged-fueled pump for the altcoin.
Over the past 30 days, Ether prices have gained 48%, with the markets exhibiting 10 leverage-driven pump signals. The majority of these rallies — eight out of 10 — resulted in negative returns, while one rally triggered a short squeeze, driving prices higher, and another displayed neutral price action.
From a technical perspective, Ether’s price action on the daily chart posted a descending triangle, a bullish breakout pattern, which creates equal highs and higher lows, converging toward an imminent rally.
The pattern is bordered by two trendlines, the upper resistance, currently around $2,700 and the ascending support line. A bullish breakout above $2,677 targets the pattern’s measured move, calculated by adding the triangle’s height to the breakout point. This projects a target range of $3,100–$3,200, aligning with prior resistance levels around $3,100 and $3,400.
The relative strength index (RSI) at 68.50 supports this bullish outlook. An RSI near 70 indicates strong momentum, with the indicator resetting after oscillating in the overbought region (above 70), suggesting the altcoin could be gearing up for a fresh rally.
Anonymous crypto trader mo_xbt pointed out a “sandwich setup” for Ethereum. The analyst also believed that a $3,000 retest was imminent and said,
“Gotta love the sandwich set up on the daily — Above 1d 200ema, below 1d 200ma & 300ma. I have seen this set up many times the last month, it always lead up.”
Related: Bitcoin profit taking lingers, but rally to $115K will liquidate $7B shorts
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
