US Sportsbook Aims for $1B ETH Treasury Bet—Wall Street Shrugs

A major US sports betting platform is making a crypto power play—raising a staggering $1 billion to bulk up its Ethereum reserves. Because nothing says ’responsible treasury management’ like doubling down on volatile digital assets.

The Whale Move

While traditional finance hedges with bonds and gold, this gambling giant’s putting chips on ETH. The raise—if successful—would create one of the largest corporate crypto treasuries outside Silicon Valley.

Crypto or Casino?

Analysts whisper about regulatory roulette, but the platform’s clearly betting that crypto’s institutional adoption phase trumps short-term price swings. After all, when your core business is calculating odds, what’s one more volatility play?

Wall Street’s reaction? A collective eye-roll—until the next earnings call shows those ETH holdings mooning, at which point every bank will suddenly ’always believed in blockchain.’

Ether Is The Target

According to the May 30 SEC filing, SharpLink wants to put most of the raised funds toward buying Ether. But it’s not just about crypto. Some of the cash will also go toward running the business—things like working capital, corporate expenses, and affiliate marketing operations.

ETH was trading at $2,520 at the time of the filing, down 2.31% in 24 hours, based on Coingecko data. The timing of the purchase, and how much Ether they actually buy, could depend on the market. But the message is clear: SharpLink is going all in on Ethereum.

Risks On The Table

The company also listed several risks that could affect its big Ether investment. One of them is the possible rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). If CBDCs take off, SharpLink believes demand for private cryptocurrencies like ETH could drop or lose their usefulness.

Another risk is regulatory. If the SEC or another agency decides to classify Ether as a “security,” SharpLink could face new rules and reporting requirements. That could complicate their plans and cost the company money in the long run.

The crypto community didn’t stay quiet. Many compared SharpLink’s move to what Strategy did with Bitcoin.

Crypto analyst 0xBoboShanti posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Ethereum finally has its own Saylor,” referring to Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). His firm now owns over 580,250 BTC, valued at more than $60 billion, based on Saylor Tracker.

SharpLink Gaming plans to raise up to $1 billion which they will then use to buy ETH

You are not bullish enough pic.twitter.com/rskEQVhP0p

— sassal.eth/acc(@sassal0x) May 30, 2025

Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano added to the noise, saying, “You are not bullish enough,” signaling strong support for SharpLink’s strategy.

The timing could be key. Just before SharpLink’s filing, ETF provider REX Shares submitted paperwork that has analysts predicting Ethereum and Solana staking ETFs could launch in the US soon.

These ETFs WOULD allow investors to earn staking rewards through regulated funds, something many providers have struggled to pull off.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView