SharpLink Gaming (SBET), the Ethereum treasury backed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, will join the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes later this month, potentially opening the stock to new institutional demand from index-tracking funds.
The inclusion will take effect after markets close on June 29 as part of FTSE Russell’s annual index reconstitution, the company said on Tuesday.
Russell indexes are widely followed benchmarks for U.S. stocks, with about $12 trillion in assets linked to them through passive and active investment strategies, the press release said. Membership in the Russell 2000, the benchmark for small-cap US stocks, can increase trading volume and institutional ownership.
SharpLink has emerged as one of the largest public holders of ether (ETH), part of a wave of companies that last year adopted crypto treasury strategies modeled after the bitcoin holder (MSTR) strategy. Since then, most treasuries stopped holding digital assets or moved to sell their assets as their stock prices cratered and crypto markets retreated.
The firm held 872,984 ETH at the start of May, according to its latest quarterly earnings report, making it the second-largest public ETH treasury, trailing Bitmine’s 5.4 million ETH holdings. SharpLink’s holdings are worth about $1.8 billion at current prices, and it hasn’t reported any ETH purchases since October.
The stock has fallen about 95% from its speculative frenzy peak last May as investors piled into crypto-tax companies amid a broader rally in digital assets. Still, shares remain more than double their level before SharpLink switched to an Ethereum strategy. The stock is down about 2% on Tuesday, corresponding to ETH’s rate.
The index inclusion validates the company’s “institutional ETH finance strategy,” SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom said, adding that it could strengthen the firm’s “access to capital markets.”
