Peter Thiel has fully unwound his position in Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla. A 13G/A amendment filed with the SEC confirms the exit. Founders Fund holds zero shares, zero percent voting rights, and no economic ownership in ETHZilla Corporation (Nasdaq: ETHZ) as of December 31, 2025.
Previously, Thiel and affiliated Founders Fund entities controlled 11,592,241 shares, representing a 7.5 percent stake. This position carried an estimated value of around $40 million. Entry came in August 2025, with full disposal completed by end of December 2025. In total, the engagement lasted just four months. ETHZ shares fell to around $3.20 in pre-market trading on February 18, down roughly 9 percent from the previous close.
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From biotech company to Ethereum treasury
ETHZilla originally operated as 180 Life Sciences Corp. (Nasdaq: ATNF), a biotech company based in Palm Beach, Florida. In July 2025, the firm announced a capital raise of $425 million through a PIPE offering. On top of that came convertible notes worth $156 million. Total gross proceeds reached approximately $565 million. More than 60 investors participated, including Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, and GSR. Prominent crypto founders were also represented, among them Konstantin Lomashuk (Lido), Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), and Robert Leshner (Compound).
Trading under the new ticker ETHZ began on August 18, 2025. This model followed Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy strategy, using corporate balance sheets as a vehicle for crypto holdings -- specifically Ethereum instead of Bitcoin. Electric Capital took on external asset management for the ETH treasury. Following the announcement of Thiel's involvement, the stock surged more than 90 percent in a single trading session. At its peak, ETHZ traded at $107.
Thiel's name functioned as a seal of approval. Founders Fund is considered one of the most influential venture vehicles in the tech sector. An entry into a crypto treasury company just days old signaled institutional legitimacy.
97 percent price decline in six months
From $107 in August 2025 to $3.20 in February 2026 -- the collapse of the ETHZ stock was drastic. Both company-specific problems and weak Ethereum price performance contributed to this decline. ETH lost around 28 percent in Q4 2025, marking the first negative Q4 since 2022. In January 2026, the price dropped another 18 percent. Currently, ETH trades below $2,000.
ETHZilla responded to the pressure with sell-offs. In October 2025, the company liquidated ETH worth approximately $40 million to fund a $250 million share buyback program. Then in December, another 24,291 ETH followed at an average of $3,069 per token, totaling $74.5 million. These proceeds went toward repaying senior secured convertible notes.
From an original peak holding of over 100,000 ETH, ETHZilla currently holds 69,802 ETH with a market value of around $139 million. As a result, the company remains the sixth-largest institutional Ethereum holder.
Strategy pivot: jet engines instead of Ether
In December 2025, ETHZilla made a notable shift in direction. In a shareholder letter, the company stated that future value creation would be driven primarily by real-world asset tokenization (RWA), no longer by ETH holdings alone.
"Going forward, the company believes its value will be driven by revenue and cash flow growth from our RWA tokenization business." - ETHZilla, shareholder letter December 2025
Since then, ETHZilla has purchased two CFM56-7B24 jet engines for $12.2 million. Tokenization is carried out under the "ETHZilla Aerospace" label via Liquidity.io, an SEC-regulated alternative trading system. In early February, the company also acquired a portfolio of 95 manufactured and modular home loans for $4.7 million. This planned tokenization on an Ethereum Layer 2 is expected to deliver an annualized yield of 10.36 percent. Additionally, ETHZilla secured a 15 percent stake in mortgage specialist Zippy. Meanwhile, the mNAV dashboard for real-time valuation of ETH holdings was discontinued.
Crypto treasury model under pressure
ETHZilla's problems are not isolated. In 2025, the median price decline among US and Canadian digital asset treasury companies reached 43 percent, while Bitcoin itself only slipped slightly. Analysts forecast that 70 percent of crypto treasury firms will hold fewer crypto assets in 2026 than at the start of the year. Yet the sector continues to grow at the top. Standard Chartered predicted that ETH treasury firms would eventually hold 10 percent of all ETH. Just two months after the trend emerged, they already held 1 percent, equivalent to 1.26 million ETH. Together, the top 10 companies control 6.1 million ETH worth over $12 billion.
At the top stands Bitmine Immersion Technologies (Nasdaq: BMNR) with 4.37 million ETH valued at roughly $8.7 billion. Of that, 3.04 million ETH is staked -- more than any other single entity worldwide. Institutional backers of Bitmine include ARK Invest, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Founders Fund. As such, Thiel's exit from ETHZilla points less to a general retreat from Ethereum and more to a rotation toward the market leader. Still, there is no direct confirmation that the timing of both positions is connected.
Venture-stage companies with limited operational substance are increasingly losing capital to established players with larger holdings and deeper institutional anchoring in the ETH treasury segment. This consolidation follows a familiar pattern.
