Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming, chaired by Consensys founder Joseph Lubin, said it will tokenize its Nasdaq-listed SBET shares on Ethereum, becoming the first company to tokenize its SEC-registered equity on the network, according to an announcement shared with The Defiant.
Under the plan, with no timeframe yet specified, SharpLink will partner with tokenization startup Superstate — founded by early DeFi innovator Robert Leshner — to launch the shares on its Opening Bell platform, which launched in May. Superstate will act as digital transfer agent and handle the shares natively on-chain, the release stated.
SharpLink and Superstate also plan to explore how tokenized equities could one day trade on automated market makers and other decentralized finance protocols, while staying compliant with U.S. rules.
Tokenized Shares on Ethereum
SharpLink Gaming co-CEO Joseph Chalom said the announcement that tokenizing SBET shares is “a statement about where we believe the future of the global capital markets is headed,” with Lubin calling the effort a step toward “onboarding TradFi to composable DeFi on Ethereum.”
Despite the news, SBET is down about 8% this morning.
The decision to issue tokenized shares follows SharpLink’s pivot to become an Ethereum treasury company this spring. According to data from Strategic ETH Reserve, the company now holds more than 838,000 ETH, second only to Tom Lee’s BitMine, making it one of the largest corporate holders of the cryptocurrency.
In early September, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital also partnered with Superstate to tokenize its stock, but on Solana. Data from Solscan shows that after the launch, the contract issued over 33,000 tokenized shares, with Wintermute’s hot wallet controlling more than 87% of the issued GLXY tokens.
