SharpLink Gaming Stakes $170M ETH on Linea Network

SharpLink Gaming (Nasdaq: SBET), recognized as the second-largest corporate holder of Ethereum globally, has executed a landmark transaction by staking $170 million of its treasury assets on the Linea Layer-2 network. The move, completed late Thursday, represents the first major instance of a Nasdaq-listed entity utilizing a zkEVM (Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) environment to generate on-chain yield from corporate reserves.

The Mechanism: Institutional DeFi Goes Live

According to filings and on-chain data verified by CoinNess and CryptoRank, the transaction involves the deployment of approximately 55,000 Ether (ETH) into a managed staking structure.

• Custodian: The assets are secured by Anchorage Digital, the federally chartered crypto bank, ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Network: The capital has been bridged to Linea, a Layer-2 network developed by Consensys, designed to scale Ethereum by processing transactions off the main chain while inheriting its security.
• Yield Strategy: Unlike passive holding (the “MicroStrategy Model”), SharpLink is actively generating revenue through validator rewards and network incentives, a strategy CEO Joseph Chalom has termed “Productive Treasury Management.”

Market

This deployment follows SharpLink’s aggressive accumulation strategy throughout late 2025. As reported by Investing.com in October 2025, the company had already amassed over 859,000 ETH (valued at ~$3.5 billion at the time), positioning it just behind BitMine Immersion Technologies in corporate rankings.

• Stock Reaction: Shares of SBET rose 4.2% in pre-market trading Friday, signaling investor approval of the yield-generation strategy which effectively creates a “crypto dividend” for the company.
• Network Effects: The injection of $170M liquidity into Linea has bolstered the network’s Total Value Locked (TVL), which had seen volatility in late 2025.