Joseph Lubin, cofounder of ethereum and chairman of SharpLink Gaming, on how ethereum is the future of finance

Joseph Lubin has been a busy man. The ethereum cofounder, Consensys CEO, and newly named chairman of SharpLink Gaming, which recently launched an ethereum treasury and holds 598,000 ethereum as of writing, is also fresh off celebrating ethereum’s 10th birthday. 

Lubin spoke with Sherwood News about SharpLink’s goals, the rapidly increasing competition in the ethereum treasury space, what sets SharpLink apart, and how Strategy’s Michael Saylor was an inspiration but how their treasuries are fundamentally different. 

Lubin also shared his views about the place of prediction markets in the crypto ecosystem, the GENIUS Act, and the biggest misconceptions surrounding ethereum, reflecting on the past 10 years and discussing where it will go from here. 

The following conversation has been edited for concision and clarity.

Sherwood News: What do you think of all the ETH treasuries and the sudden increased competition in the space? Is ETH poised to spur the next rush of digital asset treasuries?

Joseph Lubin: We should expect and appreciate new entrants into the ETH treasury landscape. At SharpLink, we had the conviction to move early and help set the pace for others. We will maintain a blistering pace, so to the extent that others can come close to matching it, the ethereum ecosystem will benefit.

We’re looking forward to welcoming other competitors, complementary competitors, into the space, and even collaborating with them.

The world economy is being rebuilt on ethereum. Ethereum has become a foundational layer in global finance, settling about $25 trillion in transactions just in 2024. The vast majority of on-chain real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins, and decentralized finance (DeFi) is resident on ethereum. 

With long overdue emerging clarity in US regulations, public markets are giving new investors direct access to ETH’s benefits, including via ETFs as well as publicly listed companies with ETH treasures, like SharpLink.

Sherwood: Is there an expectation or plan to maintain SharpLink’s original sports-betting-related business? 

Lubin: SharpLink is committed to being the world’s leading supporter of ETH and the ethereum ecosystem. We have exciting plans for our core business of online gaming that harmonize even further with our overall vision.

Sherwood: What’s your take on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi and their place in the crypto ecosystem?

Lubin: These products are remarkable in that they’ve achieved widespread popularity due to valuable use cases made possible only by blockchain.

Prediction markets, also including Myriad and Omen, can play an enormously important role in the global economy as they gain much broader adoption. As more users and liquidity enter the prediction markets ecosystem, not only do prediction markets themselves become valuable tools for understanding what is really going on in the world, but they can then serve as components of decision markets (aka conditional prediction markets) and/or futarchy, which can bring in the wisdom of the crowd in the form of these markets to serve a role in the governance of projects, companies, and DAOs.

We will increasingly see more examples of new methods and mechanisms that are enabled by decentralization as mainstream adoption of crypto accelerates.

Sherwood: SharpLink is one of the world’s largest corporate holders of ETH. Is there an end goal for accumulating ETH? You hold 598,800 (as of August 11) and said “the next stop is 1 million.” Do you have a timeline?

Lubin: Our goals are to build the largest, most trusted ethereum treasury on the public market, deliver value to our shareholders, and position ethereum at the center of global finance. We are going to continue to accumulate as much ETH as we can while maintaining the integrity and credible neutrality of the network.

One million ETH is just a near-term signpost. SharpLink will keep accumulating ETH steadily for as long as ETH prices are low enough to make continued accumulation prudent. 

ETH and bitcoin are increasingly being seen as the highest-powered money on the planet in the sense that they are uncensorable, credibly neutral even at the nation-state level, and, unlike nation-state fiat currencies, they cannot be used to exploit or financially repress the citizens of a nation.

Sherwood: You recently commented on the “rivalry” with Tom Lee and BitMine Immersions. Can you elaborate? How are the two strategies different?

Lubin: We love what Tom is doing and welcome the positive attention to ETH that he and other new entrants are bringing. There is enormous potential for both competition and collaboration.

Different treasury companies will distinguish themselves by focusing on different approaches. And since the niche is so young, we’ve seen only a small number of techniques deployed so far. 

One key advantage that SharpLink has is our team’s ETH nativity combined with our institutional credibility; this raises the ceiling on what we can offer our investors compared to other groups. With some of the best minds in ethereum and crypto asset management executing the strategies of the company, one thing SharpLink investors can assume is that we’ll earn the best prudently risk-adjusted yield and we will bring SharpLink on-chain in novel ways.

Sherwood: Do you think the SEC will allow staking in ETFs in 2025? If so, how will this affect the space? Are there any liquidity risks that funds could encounter if too much of their holdings were locked up and there was a rush to exit the funds?

Lubin: The ETF providers I talk to are confident that staking will be approved soonish. I expect it to be this year.

The welcome addition of staking to ETFs provides greater diversification in the space and strengthens the entire digital asset ecosystem, including treasury companies like SharpLink.

We’re fortunate to have world-class institutions offering ETH ETFs. The expectation is that they will stake between 50% and 70% of their ETH to manage the withdrawal queue and potential redemptions.

One advantage ETH treasury companies like SharpLink have is that they can fully stake ETH, providing that yield to investors with minimal risk.

Sherwood: What other regulations would you like to see enacted this year, and what do you make of the GENIUS Act? 

Lubin: The GENIUS Act is a watershed moment for digital assets, particularly ethereum. The new law provides regulatory clarity for stablecoins, a mainstream use case for blockchain finance.

When you’re talking about stablecoins, you’re talking about ethereum. All stablecoins are on ethereum, and the majority of stablecoin transactions are on ethereum or networks built on top of ethereum. 

We are also looking forward to seeing the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill, pass, as this will provide transparency regarding the regulation of different kinds of tokens: RWAs, decentralized protocol utility tokens, equity tokens, etc. Once again, the vast majority of these various kinds of tokens are realized on ethereum, as ethereum dominates DeFi.

Sherwood: You said you might introduce leverage to SharpLink. Do you have a timeline, and can you give more details?

Lubin: Prudent employment of equity-linked securities like convertible bonds can enhance the upside of SharpLink and allow for outperformance of ETH itself. We constantly monitor opportunistic capital markets activities to create value for our shareholders.

Sherwood: You’ve credited Saylor for persuading you to launch a firm to invest in ETH. How are your strategies similar and how are they different?

Lubin: Obviously Michael Saylor is a pioneer and Strategy is a huge inspiration for crypto treasury companies, including ours. Strategy has had more time to develop and introduce features into its approach.

The distinctions between Strategy and SharpLink are more fundamental. BTC and ETH are both essentially non-dilutive digital assets. Beyond that, they are very different. Unlike BTC, ETH is a yielding asset on a productive platform, whereas we have access to decentralized finance, staking, restaking, and an array of other mechanisms for earning yield.

We’ll have far greater flexibility than BTC treasury companies to grow investors’ value. BTC is the first mover, but ETH is the place to be right now and going forward.

Sherwood: What’s the biggest risk to ETH’s trajectory, and where do you see it going by year-end? Which drivers could help or impede?

Lubin: The biggest impediment to ETH has always been political. The Trump administration is sweeping away the hurdles set up by the SEC under former Chair Gary Gensler. The trajectory of ETH is in an acceleration phase, and with the financial industry joining the US government in embracing ethereum and with ETH treasury companies poised to continuously buy ETH, there are no near- or mid-term limits to the current powerful demand for ETH, even while the supply of ETH will remain fixed or will shrink.

Sherwood: What’s the biggest misconception about ETH?

Lubin: The biggest misconception is the failure to recognize ethereum’s potential as the foundational layer of the new global economy. Ethereum has the ability to secure and verify all transactions, whether they are initiated between humans or AI agents, with the vast majority of future transactions being in the latter category.

Ethereum underpins the new era of societal coordination and enables future use cases that haven’t been dreamt of yet.

Sherwood: Recently ETH celebrated its 10th anniversary. What’s the biggest accomplishment and where do you see ETH in 10 years?

Lubin: Ethereum is nothing less than the global standard for programmable money. For 10 years, ethereum has run 24/7/365, flawlessly and with perfect uptime. Last year, it settled $25 trillion in financial activity. Ethereum is home to by far the largest share of stablecoins, RWAs, and other tokenized assets — and hosts the vast majority of DeFi activity. Nothing else even comes close.

Where will ethereum be in 10 years? Let’s rearrange that question: where will the global financial system be in 10 years? Answer: on ethereum.

Sherwood: Is SharpLink planning any acquisitions?

Lubin: We can’t comment on forward-looking activities.