Crypto’s New House of Cards? 😬

Right, so these companies… they’re basically just *hoarding* Ether, trying to wring every last drop of yield out of it. Like, desperately clinging to those final 0.01% gains. Joseph Chalom, who runs Sharplink Gaming-and clearly has a lot of thoughts-says this is just…asking for trouble. Honestly, it’s almost endearing in its naiveté.

“There will be people just like in traditional finance who wanna get that last 100 basis points of yield, and think that it is riskless,” Chalom muttered to Bankless on Monday, probably while rolling his eyes. I mean, *riskless*? In crypto? Bless his heart.

Apparently, double-digit yields on Ether are a thing. But surprise, surprise, they come with…well, everything. “It comes with credit risk, it comes with counterparty risk, it comes with duration risk, it comes with smart contract risk,” he listed, sounding like he was reading a legal disclaimer. It’s a risk buffet, honestly. 🤦‍♀️

“I think the biggest risk is that people who are far behind are going to take risks that I don’t think are prudent.” You know, the usual. Desperation making bad decisions. Groundbreaking stuff.

Everyone’s Gonna Blame Everyone Else

Chalom thinks the whole sector could get a bad rap because of “imprudent things” people do-like, how they raise money or… try to look better than everyone else. The drama! It’s basically high school, but with billions of dollars at stake.

“If you overbuild and there is a downturn, how do you make sure your call structure is in such a way that you build to the highest price of Ethereum?” he pondered. I’m fluent in sarcasm, not finance, so… good luck with that.

Sharplink Gaming is the second-biggest Ether hog out there, with a cool $3.6 billion worth. Just behind BitMine Immersion Technologies ($8.03 billion, which, let’s be real, sounds slightly unhinged).

Apparently, these ETH treasury companies are sitting on about 3.6 million ETH, worth a rather alarming $15.46 billion as of this writing. 👀

It’s 2008 All Over Again?

Josip Rupena, a former Goldman Sachs analyst (so, you know, *qualified* to be worried), reckons these crypto treasury firms are basically the collateralized debt obligations of this decade. Ring any bells? Yeah, 2008 anyone?

But! (There’s always a ‘but’.) Matt Hougan from Bitwise thinks they’re brilliant, because apparently packaging crypto in a way traditional investors understand is…a good thing? He says it brings in more money. Cool. 🤔

Chalom, though, clarifies that the best thing about these companies is they can get bigger, basically forever. Ether is currently trading at $4,327. Which… I guess is good? I’m mostly just tired now.

Everyone’s getting a bit twitchy about the whole thing, apparently.

James Check from Glassnode suspects the Bitcoin treasury strategy is doomed. And a VC firm called Breed predicts a “death spiral” for anyone trading near net asset value. Cheery.

2025-09-03 07:12

Everyone’s Gonna Blame Everyone Else

It’s 2008 All Over Again?

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