Ethereum Treasury Company Significantly Increases Holdings of ETH Again, Institutional Competition Intensifies

Recently, a treasury strategy company focused on Ethereum investment has increased its holdings by 10,605 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 345,362 ETH, worth approximately $1.27 billion. This is the company's second large-scale increase in less than half a month since its listing.

As a company focused on Ethereum investment, it announced in July that it would go public on Nasdaq, initially planning to hold 400,000 ETH, with a market value of nearly $1.6 billion. By the end of July, the company had already made an additional purchase of 15,000 ETH.

The company's aggressive expansion coincides with a key period when several listed companies are competing to purchase ETH. As the regulatory environment becomes clearer, more and more listed companies are starting to include ETH in their asset allocation.

The "arms race" at the level of 10 billion dollars is fully upgraded

The Ethereum treasury sector has become a battleground for institutions. In just two weeks, the entire industry landscape has undergone a dramatic change.

According to reports, on July 21, when a certain company announced its listing, the ETH reserves of the other two companies were 300,000 and 280,000 coins, respectively, both lower than the company's planned initial scale of 400,000 coins. However, by August 5, one company's holdings had surged to 833,000 coins (valued at $3 billion), an increase of 177%; the other company's reserves also reached 498,000 coins (valued at $1.8 billion), an increase of 78%, and publicly announced its goal to reach 1 million coins. Even some miners who originally focused on Bitcoin urgently shifted their focus and accumulated a large amount of ETH.

This crazy accumulation trend confirms a certain bank's prediction: the treasury company has purchased over 1% of the circulating supply of ETH, and this ratio could soar to 10%. A hundred billion dollar level "arms race" is fully escalating.

In this fierce competition, a certain company has emerged with a "capital + strategy" dual advantage. First, the initial capital of nearly $1.6 billion provided strong ammunition. But the more critical advantage lies in its differentiated approach. While competitors are frantically hoarding coins to seize market share, the company has already enhanced its yield to 4-5.5% through re-staking and DeFi protocol combinations. In a low-interest-rate environment, this stable high yield has become the "trump card" to attract institutional funds.

Annualized 4-5.5%, Analyzing High-Yield Strategies

To understand how to achieve an annualized return of 4-5.5%, it is essential to grasp its core positioning------"Ether Generation Company".

This concept can be likened to the oil economy: traditional crypto investments are like buying crude oil to hoard for price increases; whereas this company chooses to become an "oil company", allowing the assets themselves to generate cash flow.

They found that ETH is not only an asset but also a production tool. Through specific protocols, the staked ETH achieves "one fish, multiple eats" ------ it provides security for the Ethereum mainnet while simultaneously serving oracles, cross-chain bridges, and other protocols, with each service bringing additional profits.

Just like bank deposits can earn interest and "work" to earn extra money at the same time. The total locked value of a certain protocol at 16.591 billion USD confirms the attractiveness of this model, and the company has become one of the largest institutional participants in the ecosystem.

In addition to re-staking yields, the company also earns returns by participating in DeFi protocols. When the base staking yield for ETH is only about 3%, this combined strategy increases the total yield to 4-5.5%.

At this point, ETH has transformed from a "waiting for appreciation" static asset into a "continuously creating value" productive asset.

Unlike traditional cryptocurrency investment models

The market always likes to find a reference point. When the company appeared, almost everyone was asking the same question: "Is this the next well-known crypto investment firm?"

Indeed, on the surface, both companies seem to be doing the same thing------holding a large amount of crypto assets under the guise of publicly traded companies. However, upon closer inspection, you will find that these are two completely different approaches.

The logic of a well-known cryptocurrency investment company is simple and crude. They issue bonds to buy Bitcoin, betting that the price of the coin will rise to cover the interest. However, the efficiency of this model is sharply declining. In 2021, the company could generate one basis point of return for shareholders with every 12.44 BTC. By July 2025, it will require 62.88 BTC to achieve the same effect. The scale has expanded fivefold, but efficiency has dropped to one-fifth.

In contrast, emerging companies are taking a different path. Through staking and DeFi participation, ETH generates approximately 5% annualized cash flow daily. There's no need to wait for the price of coins to rise, no need to pray for a bull market------this is real income, not paper wealth.

The fundamental difference lies in the asset attributes: Bitcoin is digital gold, its value lies in scarcity and consensus. Whereas Ethereum is digital infrastructure, its value lies in its ability to support the operation of the entire ecosystem.

We can now trace back the history from the early days of cryptocurrency investment and find that we are experiencing the third phase of the evolution towards a crypto treasury:

1. Pioneer Dividend Period (2020-2023): A certain company that was not favored at the time proved that a listed company could obtain a premium by holding crypto assets.

2. Mode Replication Period (2024-2025): Successful imitators emerge. The stock prices of the imitators soar and then plummet. Many companies follow suit, but the results are poor, exposing the risks of the simple coin holding model.

3. Evolution of Models (2025-): New models represented by emerging companies------not hoarding assets, but operating assets to create diversified income sources.

However, achieving this evolution from hoarding assets to operating assets is no easy task. It not only requires a profound understanding of the crypto world but also the experience to navigate the maze of traditional financial compliance.

Strong Team Background

The core team of the emerging company consists of several industry veterans, whose backgrounds cover multiple fields including traditional finance, blockchain technology, and regulatory compliance.

The team members include pioneers in promoting Ethereum applications at large tech companies, business experts who have led hundreds of millions in financing and mergers, versatile talents who have managed traditional risks and participated in DeFi protocol development, technical experts with twenty years of experience in banking-level systems, and executives from well-known payment and investment companies.

This "Ethereum Avengers Alliance" aims to reshape the landscape of institutional crypto investment. Their goal is to become a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world, creating a regulated financial vehicle that allows more institutions to safely and compliantly participate in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Controversies Arising from Industry Development

As institutional capital flows into the Ethereum ecosystem on a large scale, some controversies have arisen. There are concerns that when a single entity controls a large amount of ETH, will this change the decentralized nature of Ethereum?

In terms of technical risks, vulnerabilities in smart contracts and staking penalties could lead to a 100% loss of ETH, coupled with a unlocking period of several weeks, making liquidity a key issue.

Different voices have also emerged in the community. Some believe that the transition from "building a decentralized Ethereum" to "selling large amounts of ETH to enterprises" could ultimately lead to "Web3 becoming Wall Street 2.0."

The founder of Ethereum has also stated that large institutional capital should not be pursued at full speed. Is this concern becoming a reality when 70% of staked ETH is concentrated in a few pools?

At the same time, although the staking yield of 4%-5.5% seems attractive, history tells us that all excess returns will eventually be arbitraged away. While the regulatory environment appears to be improving, there is still uncertainty regarding policy direction.

Conclusion

As Ethereum gradually transforms from an idealistic experiment into an investment product for Wall Street, is this a sign of maturity or a departure from its original intention? This question is worth pondering in the industry.

Every successful technology may eventually move towards institutionalization. The internet, mobile payments, and social media have all undergone this process. The future direction of Ethereum, and how it balances the ideal of decentralization with the reality of institutionalization, will be a topic worth continuous attention.