Ethereum treasury SharpLink Gaming began using its $1.5 billion stock buyback program, starting with the purchase of $15 million worth of SBET shares, the firm announced on Tuesday.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based firm authorized the program in August, but this is the first time its repurchased shares, grabbing 930,000 common shares at an average price of $15.98.
“Maximizing stockholder value remains our top priority as we execute on our vision of being the most trusted ETH treasury company in the market,” said SharpLink Co-CEO Joseph Chalom in a statement.
“With a robust balance sheet, zero debt and a powerful ETH treasury generating income, we are in a position of strength. We believe the market currently undervalues our business, and rather than issue equity while trading below NAV, we are focused on disciplined capital allocation – including share repurchases – to increase stockholder value.”
The firm maintains the second largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury with 837,230 ETH valued at around $3.6 billion, yet shares of SBET trade at only a $3.14 billion market cap according to data from Yahoo Finance.
When these conditions are present, Chalom said ” the accretive course of action may be to repurchase our common stock,” when the firm announced the plan in August.
Shares of SBET jumped around 4.6% on Tuesday amid the announcement, changing hands at $16.40. However, shares have greatly underperformed the firm’s treasury asset in the last month.
During that time, shares have declined by 31% while ETH has gained 2.2%.
Last week, SharpLink added more than $176 million in ETH to its treasury, bolstering its holdings to their current state. The firm, which stakes nearly all of its Ethereum to generate revenue, recently told Decrypt it would explore doing so on Ethereum layer-2 network, Linea.
The firm serves on the Linea Consortium, a group of Ethereum-aligned entities which are tasked with distributing the bulk of the LINEA tokens to ecosystem participants.
