Bankless co-founder David Hoffman recently sold the last of his Ethereum holdings, saying the investment case for ETH had largely played out. That exit came the same week Bit Digital went the other direction — dropping $20 million to add more to its already substantial Ethereum stash.
A Company Building Around Ethereum
Bit Digital acquired 8,568 ETH on May 11 at an average price of $2,334 per token, pushing its total holdings to roughly 158,462 ETH. The Nasdaq-listed company said the purchase was part of a broader strategy to grow net asset value per share through Ethereum accumulation, AI infrastructure, and acquisitions.
According to CEO Sam Tabar, the deal helped trim the firm’s average purchase price. Bit Digital operates across three areas: Ethereum treasury management, AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, and strategic acquisitions, with its WhiteFiber subsidiary trading on Nasdaq under the ticker WYFI.
The purchase moved Bit Digital past Coinbase Global — which held about 151,175 ETH — to become the fourth-largest public corporate holder of Ether, based on CoinGecko data.
Other Firms Are Piling In Too
Bit Digital is not alone. Bitmine Immersion Technologies made its largest ETH purchase of the year earlier this week, buying 111,942 Ether. Chairman Tom Lee said Ethereum stands to benefit from a crypto supercycle driven by tokenization and AI-powered agents.
Based on CoinGecko data, Bitmine Immersion currently ranks as the largest public Ethereum treasury holder, with more than 5 million ETH.
The buying spree is happening even as ETH trades well below its recent highs. The token was priced around $2,013 at the time of reporting, down about 30% year-to-date and nearly 60% off its August 2025 peak near $4,946.
Price Lags While Network Activity Holds Steady
Standard Chartered released a report Thursday arguing that Ethereum’s on-chain metrics tell a different story than the price. Transaction activity and total value locked on the network remain near record levels, the bank said, despite the sharp drop in token value.
The bank’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, held to a price target of $4,000 for ETH by end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030. He said growth in stablecoin use and tokenization activity on Ethereum could close the gap between network usage and token price.
Hoffman, meanwhile, acknowledged that Ethereum’s network may keep expanding through stablecoins, tokenization, and layer-2 activity. His concern is that only a limited share of that growth ends up benefiting ETH holders directly.
Featured image from Trail Runner Magazine, chart from TradingView
