TLDR
- SharpLink Gaming is tokenizing its SBET stock on Ethereum through Superstate’s Open Bell platform
- The company is the second-largest public holder of Ether globally with a massive corporate treasury
- SBET stock will eventually trade on DeFi platforms and automated market makers while staying SEC compliant
- The move follows Forward Industries tokenizing shares on Solana, creating blockchain competition for equity tokenization
- SharpLink’s stock saw extreme volatility after announcing its ETH treasury, jumping to $90 then falling to $10
SharpLink Gaming announced Thursday it will tokenize its SBET stock directly on the Ethereum blockchain. The Nasdaq-listed company partnered with Superstate to use their Open Bell tokenization platform for this first-of-its-kind move.
The decision puts SharpLink among the earliest publicly traded companies to blend regulated equities with blockchain technology. Co-CEO Joseph Chalom called it “a statement about where we believe the future of the global capital markets is headed.”
SharpLink was founded in 2019 as a performance marketing company serving the iGaming and sports betting sectors. The company shifted strategy in 2025 by building one of the world’s largest corporate Ether treasuries.
According to CoinGecko data, SharpLink now ranks as the second-largest public holder of ETH globally. This pivot created extreme price swings for SBET shares throughout 2025.
The stock jumped from $40 to nearly $90 in three days after announcing the ETH reserve in late May. By mid-June, shares had collapsed back to $10 and have struggled to recover since.
Competition Between Blockchains
SharpLink’s choice of Ethereum creates direct competition with other tokenization efforts. Forward Industries announced Monday it would tokenize shares on the Solana blockchain through the same Superstate platform.
The rivalry between Ethereum and Solana for equity tokenization represents a new front in the blockchain wars. SharpLink chose Ethereum’s more established ecosystem over Solana’s faster transaction speeds.
Both companies are working with Superstate’s Open Bell platform to handle the technical requirements. The platform manages regulatory compliance while enabling blockchain functionality for traditional securities.
SharpLink filed notice with the SEC outlining plans to eventually enable SBET trading on decentralized finance platforms. The company wants tokenized shares to trade on automated market makers and other DeFi protocols.
Automated market makers use smart contracts and liquidity pools to enable trading without traditional buyers and sellers. This would allow SBET stock to trade like cryptocurrency while maintaining SEC compliance.
Regulatory Framework
The company emphasized its tokenization effort aligns with the SEC’s Project Crypto innovation agenda. This program aims to modernize US securities regulation for digital assets and blockchain markets.
SharpLink plans to maintain full regulatory compliance while exploring new trading mechanisms. The tokenized shares would still represent actual equity ownership in the publicly traded company.
The goal is creating 24/7 trading capabilities and programmable functionality that traditional stock markets cannot provide. Tokenized shares could potentially trade alongside stablecoins and other digital assets.
Current analyst coverage on SharpLink remains limited to one analyst who maintains a Buy rating. The 12-month price target of $48 suggests nearly 195% upside from current levels.
SharpLink’s tokenization effort represents the first major attempt by a large ETH holder to bridge traditional equity markets with DeFi protocols through Ethereum blockchain technology.
