- Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has acquired a 7.5% stake in the Ethereum treasury company, ETHZilla, which until just a few weeks ago was a biotech firm known as 180 Life Sciences.
- News of Thiel’s investment in ETHZilla became public Tuesday and it immediately sent the firm’s stock price sky-rocketing, closing the day up over 200%.
- Thiel has previously invested in many crypto-related businesses, and recently acquired a 9.1% stake in the largest Ethereum treasury company, BitMine Immersion.
Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor behind such sinister companies as the data-harvesting firm, Palantir Technologies, has acquired a 7.5% stake in the Ethereum treasury company, ETHZilla.
News of Thiel’s investment in ETHZilla broke Tuesday when an SEC filing became public, detailing Thiel’s acquisition. The company’s share price sky-rocketed, increasing over 200% on the day to close at US$10.24 (AU$15.68). In overnight trading, the price has continued to increase and at the time of writing sits at US$11.09 (AU$16.98) according to Yahoo Finance.
Just last month, Thiel — through his venture capital firm, Founders Fund — also acquired a 9.1% stake in the largest corporate holder of ETH, BitMine Immersion.
Until recently, ETHZilla was a biotech company known as 180 Life Sciences. Last month, the firm announced its plan to rebrand and pivot towards stockpiling ETH. The company said the biotech side of the business will continue and will offer an additional income stream, though its main ‘business’ will now be amassing ETH.
According to a statement issued by the company yesterday, ETHZilla now holds 82,186 ETH, acquired at an average buy price of US$3,806.71 (AU$5.8k), making the total cost around US$313 million (AU$480m). At the time the company released its statement, its ETH holdings were valued at approximately US$349 million (AU$535m).
Based on its current holdings, ETHZilla already ranks as the tenth largest corporate holder of ETH according to the website strategicethreserve.xyz, after only becoming an Ethereum treasury company around two weeks ago.
Ethereum treasury companies have emerged as a prominent narrative in the crypto market recently, initially driven by companies like SharpLink Gaming with deep connections to the Ethereum ecosystem (SharpLink’s co-CEO, Joe Lubin, is one of the founders of Ethereum).
Related: Ethereum Treasury Firms Outshine US ETFs with Bigger Yields and Growing Market Share
Thiel Has Deep Link to Crypto And Right Wing Politics
In addition to founding data mining software company Palantir Technologies, Thiel has long had an interest in crypto, having funded several large players in the space, including crypto exchange Bullish, prediction market Polymarket and Ethereum layer-2 network, Layer-N.
The billionaire co-founder of PayPal also has longstanding links to US libertarian and right-wing political groups and has played a central role in crafting the Trump administration’s stance toward the tech and crypto industries.
German-born Thiel was raised for a time in the notoriously racist community of Swakopmund in South Africa, which reportedly “venerated Hitler” during the time Thiel lived there — even celebrating his birthday every year. The Guardian claims Thiel has said his time in Swakopmund “steered him towards libertarianism”.
Related: Crypto Exchange Bullish Targets $629M IPO Amid Rising Investor Appetite
Thiel also played a critical role in getting JD Vance his gig as the US vice-president, having introduced Vance — who had previously worked for Thiel — to Trump in 2021.
The links don’t stop there. Thiel also has a long history with the Trump administration’s Crypto Tsar, David Sacks — the two are close friends and long-standing business partners. And Trump’s head of the White House Office of Science and Technology, Michael Kratsios, previously served as Thiel’s chief of staff.
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