Sharplink resumes ETH purchases following 8-month hiatus amid token's 2026 price bottom
During May, Joseph Chalom, CEO of Sharplink, identified three potential catalysts capable of driving Ether's price higher, with certain factors already starting to take shape.
Following an eight-month break from acquisitions, Sharplink, the Ether treasury corporation, has resumed purchasing Ether as the cryptocurrency plummeted to its weakest price point of the year on Thursday.
According to on-chain tracking data from Arkham, a wallet linked to Sharplink collected 5,000 Ether (ETH), valued at $7.85 million, from cryptocurrency prime brokerage FalconX on Thursday. The previous time the company acquired Ether through FalconX was Oct. 26, when it purchased $78.3 million worth of ETH.
This acquisition coincides with Ether reaching $1,537 on Thursday, marking its weakest price point in 2026. The recent purchase may indicate a resurgence of the firm's proactive Ether accumulation approach.
"I'm seeing genuine corporate accumulation conviction holding strong amid subdued price action," Andri Fauzan Adziima, the research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told Cointelegraph.
In May, Joseph Chalom, Sharplink's CEO, shared with Cointelegraph his perspective on three catalysts that could potentially drive upward momentum in Ether's valuation.
His first catalyst involved the approval of the CLARITY Act in the United States, whereas the second centered on a resurgence in market risk appetite, contingent upon reduced geopolitical tensions and a moderation in the artificial intelligence investment narrative. The third catalyst identified by Chalom was the ongoing expansion of real-world asset tokenization.
The Senate has not yet conducted a vote on its iteration of the CLARITY Act, and the House Financial Services Committee announced it would convene a hearing on the legislation on July 17. The United States and Iran are progressing toward a conclusive peace accord to resolve months of hostilities and tokenized real-world assets have now attained a distributed asset value of $31.55 billion, approaching its peak level for this year.
Sharplink now holds 876,285 ETH
Established in 2019 as an affiliate marketing service company serving the sports betting and gambling sectors, Sharplink transformed its business model to operate as an Ethereum treasury corporation in June 2025, appointing Consensys co-founder and CEO Joe Lubin to serve as chairman.
The company achieved the status of being the largest publicly traded corporate holder of ETH, though it subsequently lost this distinction to Bitmine in August, merely two months following Bitmine's launch of its own Ether acquisition strategy.
Presently, the company maintains holdings of 876,285 ETH and ETH equivalents, which it has amassed through consistent ETH acquisitions and staking rewards over time. Its rival, Bitmine, maintains holdings of 5.67 million ETH following the acquisition of an additional 52,203 ETH last week.
"We continue to maintain a steady pace of accumulation throughout 2026. We believe we are in the early stages of crypto spring," Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said.
Sharplink added to the Russell indexes
The recent purchase also arrives merely days ahead of Sharplink's anticipated inclusion in the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes on Monday.
Being added to the indexes is broadly perceived as favorable because numerous active and passive investment funds, including exchange-traded funds, routinely acquire stocks from these benchmarks.
In May, Chalom stated that achieving inclusion in the Russell indexes would expand the company's investor base and enhance its accessibility to capital markets.