Sharplink wants to become a pure-play Ethereum finance company, and its 2025 results show what happens when assets drop by nearly half.
The Nasdaq-listed company released full-year results on Monday, showing total holdings of 868,699 ETH as of March 1, revenue of $28.1 million, and a net loss of $734.6 million.
The loss was driven almost entirely by a $616.2 million unrealized loss on its ether position and a $140.2 million impairment charge on its liquidity staked tokens, partially offset by a $55.2 million realized gain on the conversion of ether to staked ether.
However, the unrealized loss does not mean Sharplink is selling at a loss. They are the product of fair value accounting rules that force public companies to book cryptocurrency positions into the market every quarter.
Sharplink still holds the same number of tokens, but the income statement only reflects the change in its price since they purchased the ether.
Staking revenue climbed to $15.3 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of nearly 50% from $10.3 million in the third quarter. Since launch, the company has generated 14,516 ETH in staking rewards. Institutional ownership jumped from 6% to 46%.
Sharplink is the second-largest publicly traded ETH holder after Bitmine Immersion Technologies, which holds more than 4.5 million ETH worth $9 billion and expects losses of $7.8 billion.
Bitmine stepped up its buying efforts last week, buying 60,976 ETH, its largest single-week acquisition of 2026, with chairman Thomas Lee saying the company believes the cryptocurrency is in the “late stages of a mini-crypto winter.”
Both companies run the same strategy at different scales. Both companies have raised funds to buy ether through the open market, measuring success in ether per share rather than GAAP earnings, betting that unrealized losses will eventually reverse as the cycle turns.
ETH vault theory is more complex than Bitcoin. It requires investors to believe in Ethereum’s role as an institutional settlement layer, the long-term growth of staking yields, and the value of network fee economics.
Staking offers Sharplink something that Bitcoin Finance does not, a way to earn more of the underlying asset simply by holding it, but it also introduces smart contract risk and the liquidity risk of liquid pledged derivatives.
At the same time, Sharplink said it will continue to increase compound interest per ETH, expand its staking business, and deepen ecosystem partnerships.
ETH was trading just above $2,000 in Asian afternoon on Tuesday, up 2.2% in the past 24 hours.
