Thiel’s Founders Fund Exits ETHZilla, Signaling Cooling Appetite for Token-Only Treasuries

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund exits ETHZilla, underscoring cooling appetite for token-only treasuries Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund has fully divested its stake in ETHZilla, selling every remaining share by the end of last year, according to fresh SEC filings. The move leaves the venture arm of the PayPal and Palantir co‑founder with a zero holding, down from a reported 7.5% position in August. ETHZilla — a Palm Beach–based firm that rebranded from failed biotech 180 Life Sciences to become an ether‑focused treasury — once amassed more than 100,000 ETH. It modeled itself after bitcoin‑treasury plays such as MicroStrategy (MSTR), turning corporate balance sheets into large crypto treasuries. But token‑treasury strategies have fallen out of favor. ETHZilla appears to have shifted tactics as markets churned: the firm used roughly $40 million in ether for buybacks around an early‑October market peak, then moved another $74.5 million in December to reduce debt tied to convertible notes, Bloomberg reported. More recently ETHZilla has been spinning out new ventures, including ETHZilla Aerospace — an effort to offer investors tokenized slices of leased jet engines as it pursues revenue outside pure token holdings. The Founders Fund exit is a notable signal about investor sentiment toward companies whose main business is holding tokens, and highlights how some crypto treasuries are scrambling to diversify or retool in response to market and funding pressures. Watch for whether tokenized real‑world‑asset plays like ETHZilla Aerospace gain traction as a new path for formerly coin‑heavy firms. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news