Mm.
Ethereum has achieved a historic milestone, reaching a market cap of $500 billion faster than any other major company or even Bitcoin, and this does come with a doubling of gains for long-term holders.
Now it did hit a record high above 4900, driven by massive accumulation from institutional investors and so-called whales.
Now some reallocating capital from Bitcoin to Eth and this shift.
Signal a fundamental change in the hierarchy of digital assets.
While companies like Sharkli Gaming are now holding billions in E, using it as a strategic reserve asset.
Well, with market dominance of about 14.98%, it's chipping away at Bitcoin's territory.
Well, joining me here live at the New York Stock Exchange to weigh in on this rebalancing is Joseph Jelo, co-CEO of Sharply.
Joseph, welcome.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
Good morning, Rey.
Well, I'm glad you're here today because when we take a step back and look at that post-J Jackson Hole, Wyoming rally, not just in the markets, but of course in the crypto community and also the major tokens they've pulled back.
So first and foremost, give us your take on what we saw.
Sure, I think there's a view that we are going dovish.
There's a view that There will be more infusions of capital into the markets and ultimately I think it's good not just for the long term economy but what I call the long term ethereum opportunity.
We saw Ethereum morale significantly, but at Sharpin we're really focused on giving investors access to that long term opportunity.
And as much as Friday was a really positive day, we're looking to what is a decade long, if not longer, opportunity to rebuild the global financial system on different decentralized rails, and we think that will be Ethereum.
Yeah, and I think it would be helpful for our viewers if you, as someone at Sharpling can break this down for us.
A lot of people might be familiar with Bitcoin, but what about Ethereum, especially as you mentioned, its 10th anniversary, which?
Sure, Ethereum is a decent.
A network that is programmable, builds trusts and ultimately allows for instant settlement of transactions different than Bitcoin in that Bitcoin really supports the storage and movement of that one asset Bitcoin.
If you take a step back, you've seen massive adoption in the financial systems of both stable coins, so a digital representation of the dollar of tokenized assets, and we're talking about real real world assets like stocks, bonds, and funds, and there's been a historic growth over the last decade in DFI activity and predominantly it's happening on the Ethereum network almost by a ratio of 10 to 1 versus the next largest network.
Yes, and right now in New York Morning trade on this Wednesday morning we are looking at right about the 4600 level and it is back to school season, of course, given that we're just coming off of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Labor Day is around the corner.
So help me do the math here.
Give us an understanding of your holdings over at Sharplink right now.
Sure.
So Sharplink has a single mission.
Which is to give investors an opportunity to invest in the Ethereum opportunity through its token called ether or ET, and we do that by raising capital in the equity markets and soon to be through equity linked offerings in order to allow investors to get three advantages.
One is capital appreciation of ether, and you've seen the price movement over the last several months.
As Ethereum has gained mind share, and second, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum and ET is an ideal reserve asset because you could stake it and get yield and participate in an opportunity to generate revenue in a public company.
And third, we feel very strongly that the Ethereum opportunity is here and now, and it's not just in DeFI, it's coming to traditional financial markets where there's a belief that markets need to be 24/7 programmable and frankly built on trust that Ethereum brings.
Yeah, here we are at the New York Stock Exchange fast approaching the opening bell, and when we think about annual statements or balance sheets, what makes A public company.
I understand that over at Sharplink you just announced a stock buyback.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
If you think about how Treasury companies trade, they typically trade at a multiple to the underlying ownership of the reserve asset.
If you look at what Michael Saylor has done at strategy over 4 years, he's proven that the public company wrapper can achieve a premium over the underlying.
And in EE it's even more interesting is because the staking revenue receive.
Makes the Eth and Ethereum productive for you, and that generates revenue and in a public company context that comes with a multiple.
So we're quite excited.
We've raised over $3 billion in the last 11 weeks.
We owe nearly $44 billion of, and this is the beginning.
And if you think there's a long term opportunity, now is the time to accumulate as much Eth as possible on behalf of investors.
Yeah, and Joseph, earlier we were just talking about Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Usually that gathering tends to be more of a snooze fest than the focus was on that gathering this year.
So as we head into your end, a lot of people are talking about price targets, not just for the S&P 500, but also Bitcoin as well as ether.
So give us your price target right now.
I'm not going to give a price target, but I'll give you a fundamental way.
Of thinking about the price of ether, if you look over the last 5 years, the value of ether, the token that secures the Ethereum network, has grown by almost $1 of market cap for every $2 of high quality assets secured on the network, and the value of those assets is exploding.
You hear stablecoins potentially growing from $275 billion to $2 trillion according to Secretary Besant.
You see a significant adoption of tokenized assets, and that's happening on Ethereum.
And if it's happening on Ethereum, the price of ET will go up.
You've seen people do predictions as high as $15,000 to $30,000.
I'd rather focus on the fundamentals and what's driving that, which is a massive adoption of a decentralized economy which is now coming to Wall Street.
We're sitting here at the New York Stock Exchange, and this is where it's going to start.
Yeah, and what you just mentioned, this intersection that we're seeing of DI and Tradfi, when we think back to the beginning of last year, we saw the first big spot Bitcoin ETF launch here at the New York Stock Exchange, but earlier this year we had the Circle IPO as well, and the Genius Act has passed.
So in terms of near term catalys.
I'm talking the next several months.
What are you paying attention to for it?
So I'm paying attention to two things.
One is, obviously the growth and adoption of stablecoins will be the fuel that will bring many into the market, and it will power transactions.
The second is the Clarity Act.
The Genius Act was a significant forward momentum.
It's now passed the House.
It'll move to the Senate.
And third is I'm looking for more participation by traditional institutions in tokenization of funds and real world assets.
You've seen that grow to about 30 billion, but there's a lot on the horizon, including potential tokenization of some of the largest funds.
Exists as well as stocks in order to give people 24/7 access to trading that doesn't exist today in traditional markets.
Yeah, and Joseph, before I let you go, we have less than 60 seconds here, but talking about names, Sharp Link gaming.
So what is the future of gaming?
Well, Sharpin was founded originally with an affiliated gaming business.
We still operate that business, but our primary strategy is accumulating Eth as a reserve strategy, and I think what we're trying to do is build a world class team.
We have Joe Lubin as our chairman.
Joe is a co-founder of Ethereum, and he's the CEO of Consensus.
Consensus has been around for nearly 10 years, and it is the largest and most experienced.
Ethereum commercial company with a very long term vision.
Our strategic relationship with Kenensis is differentiating.
And finally we're building a world class institutional team because if people are trusting you with billions of dollars, you need to manage that in a very accretive way, and that's what we're trying to do at Sharplink.
OK, Joseph, thank you so much for joining me.
I look forward to speaking with you again and having you back.
Thank you very much.
