ETHZilla crashes 97%, Thiel exits the ‘Ethereum Treasury’ model

In the summertime of 2025, ETHZilla was one of many greatest names within the company crypto pattern. The corporate turned in style for holding giant quantities of Ethereum [ETH] as its principal enterprise technique.

With a 7.5% stake from billionaire investor Peter Thiel, the inventory attracted appreciable consideration. However that story has now modified.

Latest SEC filings show that by the top of 2025, Thiel and his Founders Fund had quietly bought their complete stake, chopping their 11.59 million shares all the way down to zero.

This marks a dramatic shift. At one level, the inventory had surged almost 200% simply on information of Thiel’s involvement. Since then, it has fallen about 97% from its peak.

ETHZilla inventory value motion

The larger situation is that ETHZilla itself is altering course. As of the 18th of February, with the inventory buying and selling round $3.51, the corporate has moved away from its Ethereum Treasury mannequin.

As a substitute of specializing in holding ETH, it’s now promoting its crypto reserves to cut back debt and put money into industrial aerospace engines.

That mentioned, Peter Thiel’s exit got here at a time when the crypto-treasury technique was dealing with critical strain.

Whereas firms like Michael Saylor’s Technique discovered success holding Bitcoin, ETHZilla’s try to repeat that mannequin with Ethereum didn’t go as deliberate.

Market circumstances and value volatility made the technique a lot tougher to maintain.

How is ETH reacting?

The Ethereum OI-weighted funding charge chart from mid-January to mid-February 2026 exhibits heavy volatility adopted by a interval of weak point. In late January, as ETH fell from round $3,400, funding stayed largely constructive.

Supply: Coinglass

Between mid-January and mid-February 2026, Ethereum fell sharply from round $3,400 to close $1,900.

Throughout this drop, many merchants stored shopping for the dip utilizing borrowed cash, which elevated threat and helped push costs decrease.

The massive crimson spikes in early February present main liquidations, when too many merchants had been pressured out close to $1,900. These moments usually mark short-term bottoms, as weak positions are cleared.

By mid-February, buying and selling exercise slowed. ETH moved sideways close to $2,100, and funding dropped, displaying low confidence and weak demand. With neither consumers nor sellers taking robust positions, costs stay fragile.

Since funding primarily displays Futures buying and selling, it doesn’t totally present spot market promoting, making it an incomplete sign.

For ETHZilla, which as soon as held over 82,000 ETH, this volatility was not simply market noise, it threatened the corporate’s monetary stability.

With its inventory down 30% in a month and Ethereum struggling, ETHZilla determined to vary course. The corporate bought about $74.5 million price of ETH, to not purchase extra crypto, however to launch ETHZilla Aerospace.

Not everyone seems to be quitting

This comes at a time when Bitmine Immersion Applied sciences now holds about 4.37 million ETH, equal to almost 3.6% of all circulating provide.

Moreover, the Harvard Administration Firm just lately diminished a few of its Bitcoin ETF publicity and added about $86.8 million in Ethereum by way of a fund by BlackRock.

This exhibits that main establishments don’t see present market weak point as a motive to go away. As a substitute, they see it as an opportunity to rotate into Ethereum whereas costs are nonetheless low.

Ultimate Abstract

• ETHZilla’s collapse exhibits that not each crypto treasury mannequin can survive long-term market stress.
• Peter Thiel’s exit displays the failure of 1 technique, not the top of institutional curiosity in Ethereum.