SharpLink Gaming has kicked off its $1.5B buyback plan with a $15M repurchase, aiming to narrow the gap between its ETH treasury and SBET market cap.
The company disclosed Tuesday that it acquired 930,000 common shares at an average price of $15.98, marking the first buyback since the program was authorized in August. The move comes as shares continue to trail the performance of Ethereum, despite the company’s growing on-chain asset base.
“Maximizing stockholder value remains our top priority,” said Co-CEO Joseph Chalom in a statement. He cited SharpLink’s zero debt, robust ETH income engine, and undervalued equity price as key factors behind the buyback. “Rather than issue equity while trading below NAV, we are focused on disciplined capital allocation – including share repurchases – to increase stockholder value.”
SharpLink currently holds 837,230 ETH, worth an estimated $3.6 billion, yet trades at a market cap of just $3.14 billion, according to Yahoo Finance data. The firm’s ETH reserve is fully staked, and SharpLink recently added $176 million in ETH to its balance sheet, part of a broader strategy to extract yield through staking.
The firm also sits on the Linea Consortium, a group of Ethereum-aligned entities tasked with distributing the LINEA token across the ecosystem. SharpLink announced last week that it is exploring staking ETH via Linea, a zkEVM Layer-2 network backed by Consensys.
Market reaction and disconnect
Shares of SBET rose 4.6% Tuesday following the announcement, closing at $16.40. But the rally pales in comparison to the month-long divergence between the stock and its underlying assets: while ETH gained 2.2%, SBET dropped 31% over the same period.
The company said in August that buybacks would only be triggered when shares were trading below NAV and when liquidity allowed for accretive purchases. With ETH now outperforming SBET on nearly every metric, conditions appear to have forced the firm’s hand.
SharpLink’s decision to repurchase shares underscores a growing issue across crypto-native treasuries: when token holdings surge but equity valuations collapse, companies are forced to confront the mismatch, or risk shareholder revolt.
Buybacks offer a short-term fix, but they also reveal where the market refuses to assign premium. With billions in Ethereum and a stake in Linea’s next phase, SharpLink’s biggest challenge may no longer be strategy, it’s sentiment.
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