One of the five largest companies holding Ethereum has sold most of the ETH in its portfolio, sparking renewed debate about whether institutions are beginning to view Ethereum negatively or simply managing accounting risks.
ETHZilla revealed that it sold 24,291 ETH, worth approximately 74.5 million USD, as part of a preemptive redemption for senior secured convertible notes.
ETHZilla sold Ethereum to repay debts.
The company indicated it would use all or most of the proceeds from this sale to pay off outstanding debts, with a redemption schedule before the end of the year.
In simple terms, ETHZilla sold Ether to repay loans, not because it expects Ethereum's price to drop, as senior secured convertible notes have a higher priority in debt repayment and often need to be settled in cash.
Selling highly liquid assets like ETH is often a common way to close such obligations.
The company also announced that it would discontinue its mNAV dashboard service, which was previously used to track Ethereum holdings and the company's net asset value.
ETHZilla stated that future valuation assessments should focus on income and cash flows from the real-world asset tokenization business (RWA) rather than just crypto reserves.
This action reflects a strategic shift, not a capitulation. ETHZilla is repositioning from being a crypto treasury-focused company to a business model centered around tokenizing real-world assets (RWA).
Ethereum is still part of the asset in the account, but it is no longer the core of the investment plan.
From a market perspective, this sale reflects temporary selling pressure for debt repayment and does not imply that all institutions are withdrawing from Ethereum.
However, the company's stock price was significantly impacted following today's announcement.
ETHZilla's stock price dropped nearly 5% following the sale announcement, source: Google Finance.
Ethereum traded near the 3,000 USD level recently after bouncing back from a mid-December low around 2,900 USD, following weeks of narrow fluctuations.
The overall uncertainty of risky assets, thin year-end liquidity, and mixed institutional capital flows have kept ETH within a range.
In such an environment, selling reserves occasionally tends to have limited permanent impact unless it reflects broader trends, which has not yet occurred.
Recent trading activity in other locations.
Other large transactions continue to emphasize that institutional behavior towards Ethereum is diverse and not one-directional.
Earlier this month, on-chain data showed that Arthur Hayes transferred ETH worth millions of USD to institutional platforms and centers.
Although many view it as a sale, Hayes publicly clarified that the activity is a portfolio rotation towards selective DeFi, not an exit from Ethereum.
In contrast, BitMine Immersion Technologies, linked to Tom Lee, has been seriously accumulating ETH throughout December.
BitMine's most recent purchase occurred on December 22, resulting in an expansion of its reserve funds during the market correction.
Overall, ETHZilla's sale resulted from debt obligations and business restructuring, not from a negative outlook on Ethereum.
Recent activities of individual treasury companies reflect that the current market is driven by rebalancing, selective accumulation, and accounting discipline rather than large institutional sales.
