Shares in publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla (ETHZ) fell nearly 5% Wednesday following an announcement that the firm is enacting a 1-for-10 reverse stock split.
The Palm Beach, Florida-based firm expects the split to become effective in trading at market open on October 20, at which point every 10 shares of outstanding ETHZ will be converted into one share.
“As part of ETHZilla’s effort to expand engagement with institutional investors, the reverse split is designed to provide these investors with access to collateral and margin availability associated with stock prices greater than $10.00,” the firm posted on X.
“This decision reflects a strategic alignment with institutional standards, enabling broader participation from sophisticated capital into ETHZilla and positioning it for long-term growth.”
The firm’s outstanding share count will drop from around 160 million to approximately 16 million as part of the split. It cited mutual fund minimum share price limitations as part of its rationale.
ETHZilla, formerly known as 180 Life Sciences, adopted an Ethereum treasury strategy and rebranded in late July, aiming to make a splash as one of the largest Ethereum holders in the world.
It initially secured $425 million via a PIPE offering to kickstart its Ethereum treasury.
Shortly after its strategy announcement, shares in the firm skyrocketed as it was unveiled that Peter Thiel and related entities acquired around a 7.5% equity stake in ETHZilla. But just a couple of weeks later, shares had fallen sharply, leading to a $250 million share buyback.
Despite trading above $10.00 per share at one point, ETHZ finished the trading day at $1.83, down almost 5% on the day. Shares are up more than 105% in the last six months, though.
The firm owns 102,246 ETH at present time, valuing its treasury at around $407 million at current ETH prices. The haul is good enough to make ETHZilla the sixth-largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury.
“The stock split has no impact on our ETH accumulation plans. It is important to note that ETH accumulation is only one part of ETHZilla’s business model — we are not a traditional DAT,” ETHZilla SVP, Corporate Communications and IR John Kristoff told Decrypt.
“ETHZilla is currently working to offer tokenization solutions, DeFi protocol integration, blockchain analytics, traditional-to-digital asset conversion gateways and other DeFi services,” he added. “We will be updating the market on our progress on these and other initiatives in the coming weeks and months.”
