Peter Thiel’s 7.5% ETHZilla Stake Sends Stock Soaring 207%—Crypto Bulls Rejoice
Silicon Valley's favorite contrarian just placed a monster bet on crypto's future—and the market is losing its mind.
Peter Thiel's 7.5% grab of ETHZilla shares triggered a 207% price explosion overnight. The PayPal mafioso turned crypto-whale clearly sees something Wall Street's spreadsheet jockeys missed.
When Thiel moves, markets listen. His Founders Fund famously dumped its Bitcoin holdings near 2022's bottom—only to quietly rebuild positions before this year's rally. Now he's doubling down on Ethereum's infrastructure play.
Traders scrambled to front-run the news, creating the kind of volatility that gives SEC lawyers migraines. ETHZilla's trading volume hit 30x its monthly average—because nothing brings out FOMO like a billionaire's stamp of approval.
One hedge fund manager (who clearly missed the boat) grumbled about 'valuation disconnect' while updating his LinkedIn. Meanwhile, crypto Twitter declared Thiel 'based'—for the 47th time this year.
Smart money? Dumb money? At these prices, does it even matter? Just don't tell the CFTC we said that.
Thiel doubles down on Ethereum with BitMine and ETHZilla
The stake in ETHZilla marks Thiel’s second major crypto-focused investment in recent weeks. In mid-July, Thiel acquired a 9.1% stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies, a company that initially focused on Bitcoin mining but has since pivoted to building an Ethereum-centric treasury.
BitMine, now led by Fundstrat founder Tom Lee, more than doubled its ETH holdings from a $250 million private placement just days before Thiel’s investment.
