Key takeaways

• Founders Fund fully exited ETHZilla after previously holding a 7.5% stake. SEC filings show that Peter Thiel-linked entities had reduced their ownership to zero by the end of 2025, signaling a decisive retreat from an Ether-focused public treasury strategy.

• ETHZilla’s pivot from biotech to an Ether treasury strategy was aggressive. After raising $425 million and later seeking $350 million through convertible bonds, the company accumulated over 100,000 ETH, positioning itself as a leveraged equity proxy for Ether exposure.

• Debt-driven models can force crypto sales at unfavorable times. ETHZilla’s sale of 24,291 ETH in December 2025 to meet debt obligations highlighted a structural weakness. Leverage combined with crypto volatility can trigger asset liquidation during downturns.

• Ether treasury strategies carry more operational complexity than Bitcoin treasuries. Ether-focused models often pursue staking and DeFi yields, introducing smart contract, liquidity and counterparty risks that Bitcoin “hold-only” treasury models typically avoid.

Peter Thiel, the renowned contrarian billionaire investor and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has a long history of bold, unconventional bets. A US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that Thiel-linked Founders Fund entities exited ETHZilla after disclosing a 7.5% stake in 2025. ETHZilla is an Ether-focused digital asset treasury company.

The sale underscores broader market pressures on Ether treasury models, as ETHZilla’s stock has fallen sharply from its summer 2025 highs amid falling Ether (ETH) prices. This comes at a time when investor enthusiasm for leveraged or equity-wrapped crypto exposure appears to be waning.

This article examines why Thiel’s Founders Fund exited ETHZilla and analyzes the risks of leveraged Ether treasury models, debt-driven balance sheets and forced asset sales. It explores what the move signals about volatility, capital discipline and the sustainability of public crypto treasury strategies.

ETHZilla: From biotech to Ether treasury

In July 2025, biotech company 180 Life Sciences made a bold shift, raising $425 million to launch an Ether-focused treasury strategy and rebranding as ETHZilla. It positioned itself as a publicly traded vehicle for gaining exposure to Ether, with plans to build up its Ether holdings and deploy them in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and tokenized asset initiatives.

Just two months later, ETHZilla sought to secure an additional $350 million through convertible bonds to expand its reserves and support further projects. Reports indicated that the company held over 100,000 ETH on its balance sheet at one stage.

The idea behind the endeavor was straightforward: Secure funding, buy and hold Ether, generate potential returns through staking or DeFi activities and offer public shareholders leveraged exposure to Ether’s growth.

However, the strategy faced significant challenges as market conditions deteriorated.

Did you know? In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an event known as “the Merge,” reducing its energy consumption by more than 99%. It is one of the most ambitious upgrades ever attempted on a live blockchain.

ETHZilla’s pivotal sale and Peter Thiel’s exit

As crypto markets retreated from their earlier highs, ETHZilla began reducing its Ether position.

In December 2025, ETHZilla sold 24,291 ETH, generating roughly $74.5 million at an average price of about $3,068 per coin. The stated purpose of the sale was to meet debt repayments. Following the transaction, its Ether holdings reportedly fell to around 69,800 ETH.

The sale of ETH marked a pivotal turning point for the company.

For a company built around an Ether treasury, being forced to offload ETH to cover debt highlighted a fundamental vulnerability. Combining leverage with crypto’s volatility can trigger the sale of holdings at any time. A strategy originally designed for patient, long-term accumulation can quickly transform into a scramble to stabilize the balance sheet.

Not long afterward, Thiel’s Founders Fund reduced its ownership in ETHZilla to zero, fully exiting its position by the end of 2025, according to SEC filings.

What a schedule 13G exit signals and what it doesn’t

A Schedule 13G filing signals passive investment. An amendment reporting zero shares simply means the filer no longer holds enough to meet the disclosure threshold.

These filings, however, do not reveal the reasons behind the change. They offer no insight into whether the sale stemmed from routine portfolio adjustments, risk reduction, valuation concerns or broader doubts about the Ether treasury approach itself.

Timing also matters in this case. Founders Fund’s complete exit came shortly after ETHZilla’s partial Ether liquidation amid mounting pressure on similar Ether-centric balance sheet strategies.

Did you know? Before becoming synonymous with contrarian macro bets, Peter Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook in 2004 for a 10.2% stake, a deal that later became one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture returns.

Bitcoin vs. Ether treasuries: Store of value vs. layers of hidden complexity

While comparisons to Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategies are inevitable, Ether introduces layers of complexity that Bitcoin treasuries typically avoid.

Heightened volatility amplified by leverage

Ether tends to experience greater price volatility driven by underlying sentiment compared to Bitcoin. This behavior stems from Ether’s role as both a digital asset and the fuel for a programmable blockchain platform. When treasury companies rely on convertible debt or other forms of leverage, drawdowns may trigger forced selling.

Yield pursuit introduces new risks

Bitcoin treasury companies typically follow a straightforward hold-and-appreciate model. Ether-focused companies, on the other hand, often emphasize staking rewards or DeFi yields to enhance returns. However, this approach comes with trade-offs:

What promises higher returns can also increase operational complexity and systemic vulnerabilities.

Greater narrative and perception challenges

Bitcoin treasury players benefit from a “digital gold” narrative rooted in scarcity and store of value appeal. Ether, however, represents a dynamic, evolving ecosystem shaped by network upgrades, gas fee dynamics, shifting regulatory views and competition from other blockchains. This added complexity heightens uncertainty and makes it harder for markets to price the strategy.

Ether accumulators following diverse paths

Not all companies that opted for Ether treasuries reacted similarly to the downturn in crypto markets.

Some of these companies continued to accumulate ETH, trusting that Ether’s long-term network expansion and utility would outweigh near-term price turbulence. Others took the opposite path, liquidating all or a significant portion of their holdings and realizing substantial losses.

This divergence in approaches suggests that the Ether treasury model is not inherently flawed or doomed across the board. Its sustainability depends on factors such as leverage levels, risk controls and resilience to market cycles.

Did you know? Unlike Bitcoin’s simple transaction fee model, Ether uses “gas” to measure computational work. During peak non-fungible token (NFT) booms, users at times paid hundreds of dollars in gas fees just to mint digital collectibles.

Capital structure risks in volatile asset classes

Convertible debt structures can amplify potential gains in bull markets by providing relatively low-cost leverage to acquire additional assets such as Bitcoin, effectively magnifying returns as prices rise.

When companies trade at premiums to their net asset value (NAV), they can issue equity or convertible instruments to raise capital, which boosts holdings and may further enhance upside.

However, in downturns, when equity discounts widen and crypto prices fall, the feedback loop can reverse:

In this kind of bearish environment, even long-term investors with large Ether portfolios may decide to trim or exit positions to limit downside risk.

Opportunity cost and cleaner exposure

Today’s institutional investors have far more direct avenues for gaining Ether exposure than in earlier market cycles. Options include secure direct custody solutions, regulated spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), staking-enabled products and sophisticated derivatives. These structures can reduce exposure to company-specific operational, execution or governance risks.

By contrast, investing through an equity wrapper around a leveraged crypto treasury strategy adds an extra layer of complexity and uncertainty. This includes exposure to management’s discretionary decisions, funding and refinancing strategies, governance structures and capital allocation priorities, which may diverge from pure asset performance.

Founders Fund is a venture firm historically focused on backing high-growth operating companies with scalable, technology-driven business models. A vehicle centered on a leveraged crypto balance sheet may not align seamlessly with its long-term portfolio strategy or risk preferences. Recent developments, including its complete exit from Ether treasury plays such as ETHZilla amid market pressures, underscore this selective approach to crypto exposure.

Key highlights:

• Byreal CLI enables AI agent trading, farming on Solana DEX

• Copy Farmer auto-replicates top LP strategies with risk preview

• Agent skills include pool analysis, swaps, CLMM management

Byreal unveiled its first AI agent skillset Tuesday, launching an open-source CLI designed specifically for autonomous economic actors on its Solana-based decentralised exchange.

The move marks one of the earliest attempts to build DeFi infrastructure natively for machine users rather than just human traders.

The CLI, published as an Openclaw skill, allows AI agents to execute swaps, analyse liquidity pools, manage concentrated liquidity positions and replicate top-performing farming strategies — all without human intervention.

Byreal founder Emily Bao framed the release as a structural pivot: “Byreal is now building for agents. We believe agents will become autonomous economic actors.”

Agent-native farming debuts with Copy Farmer

At the core of the launch is Copy Farmer, Byreal’s liquidity replication system that lets agents scan top liquidity providers, evaluate APRs, volatility and range positioning, then automatically mirror those strategies. Users — or agents — can preview positions before capital deployment, addressing a key risk in automated yield farming.

The CLI architecture rests on three principles:

• Deterministic execution to eliminate AI hallucination risks

• Constraint-based skills that convert intent into bounded actions

• Machine-readable documentation parsed directly by models

Additional skills cover pool analysis (APR modelling, risk scoring), swap execution (AMM + RFQ routing), CLMM position management (tick alignment, fee claiming) and token discovery.

This stack extends beyond trading automation into capital formation — a shift Bao called essential for agent economics.

Machine-first protocols challenge DeFi UX norms

Traditional DEXes prioritise human‑facing interfaces: slick UIs, mobile apps and educational content. Byreal flips this model, treating agents as first‑class users requiring identity, wallet control and permissionless execution.

“Crypto uniquely provides all three,” Bao said. “Trading is only half the system — capital formation and yield deployment matter just as much.”

The release coincides with growing AI agent hype in crypto, but Byreal differentiates by embedding structured farming directly into the conversational layer.

Most agent projects focus on high-frequency trading; Byreal targets LP optimisation — historically 60–70% of DeFi TVL but underserved by automation.

Solana’s speed meets agent scale

Solana’s sub‑second finality and parallel execution make it ideal for agent workloads, where latency compounds across thousands of micro‑decisions.

Byreal’s deterministic CLI ensures capital deployment logic stays separate from natural language processing, minimising protocol‑level risks.

The agent‑native thesis rests on volume projections: protocols optimised for machines today capture tomorrow’s routing layer as agent adoption scales.

Early DEXes like Uniswap prioritised human UX; Byreal bets the next era belongs to machine economics.

Industry observers see parallels to high‑frequency trading’s dominance of TradFi liquidity. If agents claim even 10% of DeFi volume, agent‑native infrastructure becomes table stakes.

Byreal’s open‑source CLI lowers barriers for developers building the agent economy.

KuCoin’s recent PoR leadership underscores transparency demands even as innovation accelerates. Byreal’s launch arrives amid Solana’s derivatives surge, where agent‑driven yield could unlock new capital inflows.

For protocols, the challenge shifts from user acquisition to machine onboarding. Byreal positions itself at this inflection: not just a DEX, but agent infrastructure.

Whether machines eclipse humans remains speculative, but the CLI proves crypto can speak their language.

As crypto assets continue to expand from on-chain trading into everyday spending, payment products are becoming a core pillar of exchange ecosystems. Recently, one of the global leading digital asset trading platforms Gate officially launched the all-new Gate Card, introducing a high-cashback structure, a dual-track tier upgrade system, and elevated spending limits to further differentiate its offering in the crypto payments market.

One of the standout features of the new Gate Card is its cashback rate of up to 5%. Users earn rewards in multiple assets, including BTC, ETH, USDT, or GT, after each purchase. With a card fee of 1%, higher-tier users can fully offset costs and generate additional net returns, with monthly rewards capped at up to 250 USDT.

Unlike traditional payment cards that focus solely on convenience, this design transforms spending into a sustainable reward mechanism, making “spend-to-earn” a tangible reality.

The card’s tier system has also been upgraded with a dual-track progression model. Users can level up either by meeting spending thresholds or by qualifying through their VIP status, without the need to satisfy multiple overlapping conditions. Tier assessments are automated and take effect in the following month, offering a transparent and predictable growth path.

This structure effectively links trading activity with consumption behavior, enhancing retention among higher-tier users while providing a clear upgrade route for entry- and mid-level users.

In terms of benefits, Gate Card adopts a T0–T4 tiered framework, with each level corresponding to different cashback rates and monthly caps. Top-tier users can enjoy up to 5% cashback with a monthly limit of 250 USDT. The progressively increasing benefits strengthen long-term engagement and encourage users to continuously expand activity and asset holdings.

High spending limits further underscore the product’s focus on premium use cases. Gate Card supports single-transaction and daily limits of up to $500,000 and a monthly cap of $1,500,000, with no annual limits for VIP10-VIP14, making it suitable for cross-border payments, large purchases, and capital management. These elevated limits significantly enhance the card’s appeal to high-net-worth users and improve the real-world utility of crypto assets.

In addition, the global coverage has further expanded its application scenarios. Gate Card can be used in over 100 countries and regions, covering approximately 130 million merchants worldwide that accept Visa. It supports both online and offline payments as well as ATM withdrawals. Users can choose between virtual and physical cards, with additional support for Google Pay, enabling seamless mobile and multi-scenario payments.

Overall, the new Gate Card builds a closed-loop growth model centered on trading, spending, and tier progression. Higher tiers unlock greater rewards, which in turn stimulate increased spending and trading activity, reinforcing user engagement and asset retention.

As the crypto industry moves toward broader adoption and real-world integration, payment tools are emerging as a vital bridge between on-chain assets and the global economy. Through its combination of high cashback, generous limits, and structured growth incentives, Gate Card offers a compelling blueprint for crypto payments with stronger yield potential and ecosystem synergy.

Looking ahead, Gate plans to further integrate crypto payments into its broader platform ecosystem, expand global use cases, and accelerate the large-scale adoption of digital assets in everyday life, helping shape a more sustainable growth model for the industry.

About Gate

Gate, founded in 2013 by Dr. Han, is one of the world’s earliest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform serves over 50 million users with 4,400+ digital assets and pioneered the industry’s first 100% proof-of-reserves. Beyond core trading services, Gate’s ecosystem includes Gate Wallet, Gate Ventures, and other innovative solutions.

For more information, please visit: Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn| Instagram | YouTube

Disclaimer: This content does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation. You should always seek independent professional advice before making investment decisions. Note that Gate may restrict or prohibit certain services in specific jurisdictions. For more information, please read the User Agreement via https://www.gate.com/user-agreement.

Aster price is forming a potential inverse head and shoulders pattern, signaling a possible trend reversal. A confirmed breakout above $0.79 could trigger a bullish rally toward the $1.06 resistance target.

Aster’s (ASTER) recent price action is beginning to show early signs of a structural reversal as a classic technical pattern emerges on the chart. After a prolonged corrective phase, the formation of an inverse head and shoulders pattern suggests that bullish momentum may be building beneath key resistance.

Aster price key technical points

• Bullish Reversal Pattern: Inverse head and shoulders formation developing
• Neckline Resistance: $0.79 acts as the key breakout level
• Technical Target: Breakout projects a move toward $1.06 resistance

Aster’s current price structure closely resembles a classic inverse head and shoulders pattern, one of the most widely recognized bullish reversal formations in technical analysis. The chart shows a clear left shoulder, followed by a deeper head, and a developing right shoulder, indicating that selling pressure may gradually be weakening.

The defining feature of this formation is the neckline resistance, which in this case sits near the $0.79 level. Historically, this region has acted as a strong barrier for price action. Previous attempts to break above this zone resulted in bearish reactions, highlighting the presence of significant supply at this level.

However, repeated tests of resistance often weaken selling pressure over time. Each time the market approaches the neckline, sellers must absorb additional buying demand. Eventually, this process can lead to a decisive breakout if buying pressure becomes strong enough to overwhelm supply.

For the inverse head and shoulders pattern to activate, Aster must break and close above the $0.79 neckline. Confirmation of the breakout would indicate that buyers have regained control of market structure, potentially triggering a new bullish expansion phase.

Once confirmed, the technical target for the pattern sits near $1.06. This projection is calculated by measuring the distance from the head to the neckline and extending that range above the breakout point. Interestingly, this level also aligns with the next high timeframe resistance zone, adding further technical significance to the target.

Volume will play a crucial role in determining whether the breakout can succeed. Bullish continuation patterns typically require a noticeable increase in trading volume to confirm that market participation is expanding. Without strong volume support, breakouts can often fail and revert back into consolidation.

At the moment, the pattern remains unconfirmed, as price is still trading slightly below the neckline resistance. Until the $0.79 level is reclaimed on a closing basis, the inverse head and shoulders formation remains a developing setup rather than an activated signal.

From a market structure perspective, this consolidation beneath resistance may actually strengthen the potential breakout scenario. Prolonged compression below key levels often builds liquidity, which can lead to sharp expansion once the market resolves directionally.

If the breakout occurs with strong momentum, the path toward $1.06 could open quickly as short sellers are forced to cover positions and buyers chase the move higher.

What to expect in the coming price action

Aster is approaching a critical technical inflection point at $0.79. A confirmed breakout above this neckline with strong volume would activate the inverse head and shoulders pattern and project a rally toward the $1.06 resistance zone.

However, failure to break this level could keep price consolidating below resistance until sufficient momentum builds for a decisive move.