When the guy who spent 20 years at BlackRock, including a stint running digital assets strategy, tells you he left to bet his career on Ethereum, it’s probably worth hearing him out.

Joe Chalom, now CEO of Sharplink (Nasdaq: SBET), has been making a pointed argument that Ethereum deserves a spot in corporate treasuries, not just as a speculative hold but as a yield-generating, programmable asset that outpaces Bitcoin on several practical dimensions. And he’s putting real capital behind it.

From BlackRock to Ethereum treasury company

Chalom joined Sharplink in July 2025, leaving behind two decades at the world’s largest asset manager. In late June 2026, Sharplink raised $75 million through a registered direct offering specifically aimed at expanding its ETH holdings. The company stakes nearly all of its Ethereum, with roughly $200 million allocated toward liquid restaking strategies in early 2026.

The strategy is built around a deceptively simple metric: increasing ETH per share. Rather than chasing flashy DeFi plays or speculative token launches, Chalom has described a disciplined capital allocation approach. Buy ETH, stake it, earn yield, repeat.

Sharplink’s institutional ownership surged from 6% to 47% between mid-2024 and March 31, 2026. That’s not retail hype. That’s Fidelity-level capital walking through the door. The company also counts Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin as its board chairman.

The bull case against Bitcoin

Chalom’s core argument centers on utility. Bitcoin’s value proposition has crystallized around being digital gold, a store of value, a hedge against monetary debasement. Chalom contends that Ethereum does everything Bitcoin does while also powering a massive ecosystem of actual economic activity.

The numbers he cites are striking. Ethereum constitutes over 50% of all stablecoins in circulation. It accounts for more than half of real-world asset tokenization activity. And it dominates DeFi, the sector of crypto where protocols actually generate revenue by facilitating lending, trading, and other financial services.

Staking, restaking, and the yield advantage

Bitcoin holders earn nothing for holding Bitcoin. Ethereum stakers earn rewards for helping validate transactions on the network. Sharplink has taken this a step further with liquid restaking, a more sophisticated strategy where staked ETH is simultaneously used to secure additional protocols. This creates layered yield without selling the underlying asset.

That said, Ethereum’s yield is not risk-free. Smart contract vulnerabilities, slashing penalties for misbehaving validators, and protocol-level changes can all impact returns. Liquid restaking adds another layer of complexity and smart contract risk on top of that.

What this means for investors

Ethereum’s quantum resistance roadmap adds another layer to the long-term bull case. The network has a dedicated post-quantum security team working on migration processes projected around 2029, part of what’s been called the “Lean Ethereum” strategy.

Investors watching this space should track Sharplink’s ETH per share metric closely. If Chalom can consistently grow that number while the underlying asset appreciates, the Ethereum treasury model will speak for itself.