SharpLink Adds 10,000 ETH to Treasury as Tom Lee Warns of Extreme Market Fear

Sports betting technology company SharpLink Gaming (SBET) continued its aggressive Ethereum accumulation strategy this week, purchasing an additional 10,000 ETH and bringing its total holdings to 886,725 ETH as of June 28. The move came alongside a notable stock repurchase program and amid stark warnings from Fundstrat's Tom Lee about market sentiment reaching historically low levels.

According to an official company statement, SharpLink acquired the latest batch of Ethereum at an average price of $1,611 per token. The timing proved immediately unfavorable, as ETH was trading around $1,570 at the time of publication — meaning the newly acquired tranche was already underwater within just a few days of purchase. The total position is currently valued at approximately $1.4 billion based on Ethereum's prevailing market price.

The ETH acquisition was paired with a concurrent share buyback initiative. SharpLink repurchased 2,132,773 of its own shares at $4.69 apiece, deploying roughly $10 million. The funds came from a $75 million stock offering completed the prior week, priced at approximately a 41% premium. CEO Joseph Chalom described both actions as components of a unified capital allocation strategy designed to maximize the amount of ETH backing each outstanding share.

"We had the opportunity to buy ETH and repurchase our stock at attractive valuations, so we did both. This past week we added 10,000 ETH and repurchased 2,132,773 shares," Chalom stated publicly, underlining the deliberate nature of the dual approach.

It is worth noting that SharpLink had only recently resumed Ethereum purchases following an eight-month hiatus, making this renewed accumulation all the more significant. The company now holds the second-largest corporate Ethereum treasury, trailing only BitMine.

BitMine, chaired by veteran market strategist Tom Lee, disclosed holdings of approximately 5.7 million ETH along with $9.8 billion in combined crypto and cash assets — a position more than six times the size of SharpLink's treasury.

Lee himself has been vocal about current market conditions. In a recent interview, he pointed to collapsing Google search interest in Ethereum and a record-low Relative Strength Index as indicators of extreme investor fear. His assessment was blunt: the current fear-and-greed index reading is worse than what was recorded in the aftermath of the FTX collapse in late 2022 — a period widely regarded as one of the darkest moments in crypto market history.

"Usually that's a good time to be buying something," Lee noted, framing the pessimism as a contrarian buying signal rather than a reason for concern.

Beyond sentiment indicators, Lee argued that Ethereum's price is currently disconnected from its underlying fundamentals. He cited the growing convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain tokenization as structural tailwinds that could drive long-term value appreciation. Lee has also pushed back against concerns surrounding staff departures from the Ethereum Foundation, dismissing them as overstated.

Context matters here: Ethereum hit an all-time high near $4,946 in August 2025 before entering a prolonged decline. The asset has since lost approximately 69% of its peak value, and is down around 23% over the past month alone. SharpLink built the majority of its treasury at significantly higher price levels, meaning the company is sitting on substantial paper losses.

Despite this, staking revenue has provided Ethereum treasury companies with a partial cushion against unrealized losses during the downturn. Whether SharpLink's continued buying represents savvy bottom-fishing or simply a deepening commitment to a long-term thesis remains an open question — but the firm shows no signs of slowing down its accumulation.