BlackRock Is Building An ETH Staking ETF While Equity Treasury Plays Burn - Here's The Divide

Ethereum's (ETH) 50% price decline from mid-2025 peaks has wiped out a generation of corporate treasury plays, yet institutional infrastructure investment is accelerating in parallel.

With ETH trading near $2,000, equity wrappers built around raw cryptocurrency accumulation have suffered near-total collapses, while regulated yield products and venture infrastructure funds continue drawing capital through the drawdown.

What Happened

ETHZilla Corp's stock fell to around $3.40 - down 97% from its August 2025 peak above $107 - as ETH's decline eroded the equity multiple the company had built on leveraged token accumulation.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund fully exited its 7.5% stake by year-end, per a Feb. 17 SEC filing.

ETHZilla has since sold over $114 million in ETH to service convertible debt and has pivoted toward tokenizing leased jet engines.

Spot ETH ETF cumulative flows, which peaked above $15 billion in mid-2025, have since retreated to approximately $11 billion. Weekly outflows have run $200–300 million in recent weeks, per Kaiko data citing Farside.

Why It Matters

The failures are structurally distinct from prior crypto downturns. Equity treasury vehicles like ETHZilla held ETH without diversified revenue, creating asymmetric downside - stocks declining far faster than the underlying asset as market confidence deteriorated alongside price.