ETH Treasury Dark Horse ETHZilla: Til and EF Depth Support mNAV Reaches 6

Author: AIMan@Golden Finance

With the support of the Ethereum treasury, Ethereum has surged recently, reaching $4,700, just about $150-200 away from its all-time high (ATH).

Especially the Ethereum treasury twins "BitMIne and SharpLink" are particularly eye-catching. In just two to three months, BitMIne has already held 1.2 million ETH, and SharpLink holds nearly 600,000 ETH. BitMIne and SharpLink can be said to represent two typical routes of Wall Street and Ethereum co-founder, ConsenSys founder Lubin.

Recently, besides the two routes, another Ethereum DAT company has emerged. It is the Nasdaq-listed company 180 Life Sciences, which has now been renamed ETHZilla.

After ETHZilla announced the implementation of the ETH treasury, its stock price increased by more than 10 times in one month, and the amount of ETH held ranked among the top 5 in ETH treasury companies, with mNAV reaching 6, far exceeding BitMine's 1.8 and SharpLink's 1.07.

Who is behind ETHZilla? What is special about its ETH treasury strategy? Jinse Finance took a look.

Who is ETHZilla?

ETHZilla started half a month ago.

On July 29, Nasdaq-listed company 180 Life Sciences announced the signing of PIPE financing documents to raise $425 million for the implementation of its ETH treasury strategy. After the transaction is completed, the company will be renamed ETHZilla.

Announced the completion of a $425 million private placement on August 4. Announced the completion of a $156 million convertible bond issuance on August 11. The annual interest rate for the first six months of the convertible notes is 0.00%, and for the subsequent six months, the annual interest rate is 4.00%, until maturity.

On August 12, ETHZilla announced the purchase of 82,186 ETH at an average price of $3,806, totaling approximately $3.49 billion. ETHZilla currently holds around $238 million in cash equivalents.

It is worth noting that there are many participants in the ETHZilla PIPE trading, with over 60 institutions and top DeFi founders involved, including Harbour Island, Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, GSR, Omicron Technologies, Konstantin Lomashuk (co-founder of Lido), Sreeram Kannan (founder of Eigenlayer), Mike Silagadze (founder of Ether.fi), Danny Ryan (co-founder of Etherealize), Vivek Raman (co-founder of Etherealize), Sam Kazemanian (co-founder of Frax), Grant Hummer (co-founder of Etherealize), Robert Leshner (founder of Compound), Tarun Chitra (founder of Gauntlet), as well as several other renowned founders and leaders in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Unique Aspects of ETHZilla Compared to Other ETH DApps

1. Peter Thiel holds nearly 30% of ETHZilla

According to SEC disclosure documents, Peter Thiel himself and several of his funds hold shares in ETHZilla—FF Consumer Growth II (5.8%), The Founders Fund Growth II Management (5.8%), FF Upper Tier GP (5.8%), FF Consumer Growth (1.7%), The Founders Fund Growth Management (1.7%), Peter Thiel (7.5%), totaling up to 28.3% of shares in ETHZilla. Despite the statement claiming they do not constitute "concerted actors."

According to public information, Peter Thiel holds stakes in two Ethereum treasury companies. The first ETH treasury company is BitMine, controlled by Tom Lee, but SEC filings show that Thiel only owns about 9% of BitMine, suggesting that his financial investment could be larger.

The second company is ETHZilla, which is different from BitMine; Peter Thiel holds nearly 30% of the shares in ETHZilla.

As a top investor in the United States and a behind-the-scenes bigwig in the political arena, Peter Thiel's deep involvement may be one of the reasons why ETHZilla mNAV is as high as 5.8.

2. Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation get involved

According to the announcement from ETHZilla, the CEO of Etherealize, Vivek Raman, will serve as a strategic advisor to ETHZilla, and Etherealize will collaborate with a leading DeFi builders alliance to form a DeFi council to provide advice to ETHZilla on how to leverage funds to create excess returns.

All three founders of Etherealize participated in the investment and support of ETHZilla.

Source: IOSG

Behind Etherealize are the figures of Ethereum founder Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation.

Etherealize, an Ethereum ecosystem institutional marketing and product department, was established in January 2025 and is dedicated to promoting Ethereum to Wall Street financial institutions. Etherealize accelerates Wall Street institutional adoption through the following missions: educating institutions on Ethereum as a store of value asset and technology platform; and connecting institutions to Ethereum by building products that bring assets and users into the Ethereum ecosystem.

According to market rumors, Etherealize was established with the support of the Ethereum Foundation. Prior to the establishment of Etherealize, it received investments from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation. In March 2025, during an extremely low period for ETH prices, a key figure from the Ethereum Foundation, Danny Ryan, who was the chief coordinator for the Ethereum The Merge upgrade, joined Etherealize as a co-founder.

In a research report published in June 2025, Etherealize believes that ETH is digital oil and is expected to become the infrastructure supporting the global economy, powering the global financial system and the broader digital economy. ETH should be viewed as a core allocation in institutional strategies, especially those that prioritize long-term value creation, technological exposure, and forward-looking financial infrastructure.

3. Focus on DeFi and on-chain strategies

According to ETHZilla, Etherealize will collaborate with leading DeFi builders' alliances to form the DeFi Council, aimed at exploring how to use funds to generate excess returns. The members of the DeFi Council team have extensive experience and are the creators of many key DeFi protocols today (see the DeFi founders involved in ETHZilla's funding).

Electric Capital will serve as the external asset manager for ETHZilla and plans to implement a differentiated on-chain yield generation program. This program aims to go beyond traditional ETH staking while maintaining robust risk management, striving to integrate staking, lending, liquidity allocation, and customized private agreements.

Conclusion

The three points described in the last section are exactly what sets ETHZilla apart from other ETH treasury companies.

ETHZilla brings together seasoned Wall Street investors, veteran Ethereum builders, and top DeFi founders under a publicly listed company. It not only purchases ETH but also focuses on DeFi, deploying a series of on-chain strategies powered by Ethereum to compound ETH as much as possible and increase the value of each share of ETH.

With Wall Street and RWA moving onto the Ethereum chain, ETHZilla may be exploring a new route to leverage the on-chain yield potential of Ethereum.