Sharplink's ETH dip-buy streak hits $78.5M while Ether prints a 2026 low 🐋

Sharplink has purchased 39,196 Ether worth $62.4 million over three trading days, the second-largest public corporate ETH treasury said via on-chain data tracked by Arkham and Lookonchain, marking its return to active accumulation after an eight-month pause. The spree began on Thursday with 5,000 ETH valued at $7.85 million from FalconX at an average price of $1,576, continued Friday with another 5,000 ETH worth $7.9 million, and culminated Saturday with 29,196 ETH worth $46.7 million spread across three over-the-counter transactions. Sharplink's total holdings now stand at 868,699 ETH, including 22,102 staked tokens, with an average purchase price of about $3,609 per coin calculated by on-chain analyst EmberCN, implying an unrealized loss of roughly $1.71 billion to $1.79 billion. Separately, the company disclosed a further 10,000 ETH purchase at an average price of $1,611, bringing its holdings to 886,725 ETH, following a $75 million registered stock offering.

The accumulation has unfolded as Ether slid to $1,537 on Thursday, its lowest price in 2026, with ETH down 5% over 24 hours and 22.8% month-on-month, and nearly 50% year-to-date. Tether's USDT briefly overtook ETH in market capitalization during the rout, at about $186 billion to $185 billion, while bitcoin slipped under $59,000. Sharplink's Nasdaq-listed shares (SBET) closed Thursday down 3.5% at $4.56, but rebounded 5.48% to $4.81 the following day; shares are down roughly 27% in a month and 50% over six months.

Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom told Cointelegraph in May that he identified three catalysts for ETH price growth: passage of the CLARITY Act, a return of market risk appetite tied to easing geopolitical tension and cooling of the artificial intelligence investment thesis, and continued growth in real-world asset tokenization. The House Financial Services Committee said it would hold a hearing on the CLARITY Act on July 17, the US and Iran are working toward a final peace agreement, and tokenized real-world assets have reached a distributed asset value of $31.55 billion. "I'm seeing genuine corporate accumulation conviction holding strong amid subdued price action," Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told Cointelegraph.

Sharplink is set to join the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes on Monday, a move Chalom said in May would broaden the company's shareholder base and strengthen its access to capital markets. The company also joined Bitmine, Ethereum co-founder and Sharplink chairman Joe Lubin, and other contributors in backing Ethlabs, a nonprofit formed to "ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption." "As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move on-chain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy," Sharplink said. "Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale."

Competitor Bitmine (BMNR), the largest public ETH treasury, held 5,672,956 ETH worth $8.92 billion after acquiring 52,203 ETH for $92 million on June 22. "We continue to maintain a steady pace of accumulation throughout 2026. We believe we are in the early stages of crypto spring," Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said. US spot Ether ETFs recorded their seventh straight week of outflows, with $12.9 million in net withdrawals last week led by BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), while a newly created whale wallet accumulated 18,361 ETH worth $28.9 million and 152,986 Hyperliquid (HYPE) worth $9.73 million through FalconX over nine days. BlackRock separately moved 2,700 BTC and 41,996 ETH to Coinbase in transfers totaling $226 million, typically associated with ETF settlement or custodial adjustments rather than direct sales. Sharplink was founded in 2019 as an affiliate marketing service provider to the sports betting and gambling industries, rebranded from SharpLink Gaming in February, and pivoted to become an Ethereum treasury company in June 2025 with Consensys co-founder and CEO Joe Lubin as chairman.