BitMine pledged nearly 75,000 ETH for the first time! SharpLink unstaking more than 35,000 ETH, but CEO shouts: Ethereum TVL will increase 10 times next year
While the price of Ethereum is hovering at the $2,900 level, two major institutional ETH treasury companies have taken completely different actions: BitMine, the world's largest ETH treasury, pledged nearly 75,000 ETH for the first time to earn staking profits, while SharpLink simultaneously released more than 35,000 ETH from pledges; however, its CEO is optimistic that Ethereum TVL will surge by 10 in 2026. times, differences in institutional strategies have aroused great concern in the market.
(Previous summary: Analysts warn: Ethereum is unlikely to reach a new high in 2026. If ETH hits the previous high, "please run away")
(Background supplement: BitMine continues to buy Ethereum! It spent 19.63 million US dollars to sweep up 6,678 ETH, and the total position is approaching 4.1 million)
According to the on-chain data monitoring team @OnchainLens As early as today (27th), an article was published on the In this regard, on-chain data analyst @EmberCN also posted on the X platform today to add that:
BitMine (BMNR) finally began to try to pledge its ETH holdings to obtain interest income: about 50 minutes ago, they deposited 74,880 ETH (approximately $219 million) into the Ethereum PoS pledge contract. This is the first time BitMine has staking, and the company currently holds approximately 4.066 million ETH. If calculated based on the current annualized yield (APY) of approximately 3.12%, if all are pledged, approximately 126,800 ETHs can be obtained in interest per year, which is worth approximately US$371 million based on the current ETH price of US$2,927.
This move shows that BitMine has begun to shift from simply holding currency to actively participating in the network consensus mechanism and earning staking income.
SharpLink unstakes Ethereum
However, in contrast, another Ethereum treasury company SharpLink (@SharpLink, Nasdaq: SBET) was monitored by on-chain data today and has uns pledged 35,627 ETH from the liquidity staking agreement, worth approximately US$104.4 million. According to market analysis, this may mean that SharpLink will sell part of Ethereum, adjust its asset allocation strategy, or release liquidity for other investment arrangements.
But it is worth noting that earlier today, SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom (former head of digital asset strategy at BlackRock) published a post on the X platform expressing strong optimism about the Ethereum ecosystem. He said that the rapid expansion of the stablecoin market, the proliferation of tokenized real assets (RWA), and the growing interest of sovereign wealth funds in crypto assets will drive Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) to increase 10 times in 2026.
In 2026, I believe Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) will increase 10X. Why and how? 🧵
Views ≠ investment advice.
— Joseph Chalom (@joechalom) December 26, 2025
Joseph Chalom further elaborated on his views: By the end of 2026, the stablecoin market is expected to reach $500 billion; the tokenized RWA market will expand to $300 billion, and tokenized assets under management (AUM) will grow by 10 Times, it is not limited to the tokenization of individual funds, stocks or bonds, but extends to the tokenization of the entire fund portfolio. In addition, the amount of ETH held by sovereign wealth funds and the scale of tokenization are expected to increase by 5-10 times.
He also emphasized that on-chain artificial intelligence agents (AI agents) and prediction markets will become mainstream applications, which will bring a large amount of on-chain activities and value inflows, further strengthening Ethereum’s status as a global settlement layer.
Overall, the latest actions of the two major Ethereum treasury companies are divergent: BitMine has turned to staking to increase revenue, and although SharpLink has lifted some of the pledges, its leadership is extremely optimistic about the ecological prospects. This also partly reflects the differences in strategies of institutions in the current ETH price range of about $2,900-3,000, which also injects different signals into the market.
