- Corporations have bought 1% of ETH since June and are outpacing Bitcoin-focused firms 2 to 1.
- ETH’s price strength is being driven by spot ETF performance and corporate treasury demand.
- Standard Chartered thinks these entities might end up holding 10% of the total ETH supply.
Looks like the tables are turning—corporations are buying up Ether (ETH) at a noticeably faster pace than Bitcoin, and it’s not just a coincidence. According to a fresh report from Standard Chartered, this isn’t some one-off trend. It’s starting to look like a real shift in where institutional money’s heading.
Since early June, corporate treasury firms have scooped up about 1% of all existing ETH. That’s a huge chunk when you think about Ethereum’s massive supply. Even more telling? Ether-focused treasuries are now moving at twice the speed of their Bitcoin counterparts. And that’s been showing up in price action too—ETH has been quietly outperforming BTC lately.
ETFs and Corporates Fueling ETH’s Push
Standard Chartered credits some of this ETH momentum to two key drivers: corporate buying and a record-setting streak for spot Ether ETFs. “Buying by these companies, along with the best period for ETH ETFs on record, has certainly contributed to those gains,” the report noted.
While ETH still sits around 21% below its all-time high of $4,890 (back in Nov 2021), analysts say things are lining up for a push past the $4,000 mark before year’s end—if the current inflows keep flowing in, of course.
From 1% to 10%? That’s the Bet
Here’s where it gets interesting. The report suggests that Ether treasury firms have way more growth potential than their Bitcoin counterparts, especially thanks to “regulatory arbitrage.” Basically, ETH-focused firms can take advantage of things like staking rewards and DeFi leverage that U.S.-based ETFs can’t touch just yet.
Standard Chartered even floated the idea that corporates could eventually own up to 10% of the total ETH supply. That’s 10 times what they’re holding right now. Wild, right?
Right now, the biggest corporate Ether holder is BitMine Immersion Tech, which announced it’s holding 625,000 ETH—or about 0.52% of circulating supply. That news came alongside a bold $1 billion stock repurchase plan. The company says it’s eyeing up to 5% of ETH’s supply… that’s another 6 million tokens.
More Big Players Enter the Arena
Next in line is Nasdaq-listed Sharplink, which just dropped $290 million to buy 438,190 ETH between July 21 and 27. They paid an average of $3,756 per token, and yep—they made the announcement official on Tuesday.
And there’s more on the way. A newcomer called The Ether Machine (pretty on-the-nose name) said it plans to build “one of the largest onchain ETH positions of any public entity.” They’re aiming for over 400,000 ETH, worth more than $1.5 billion, and want to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “ETHM.”
So yeah, the ETH land grab is very real. And it’s only just beginning.
