Biotech Firm Rebrands to Launch $425M Ethereum Treasury
Ethereum is once again in the spotlight—not because of a protocol update or DeFi development, but due to a dramatic pivot by a publicly traded biotech company.
Formerly known as 180 Life Sciences, the firm has rebranded as ETHZilla and unveiled plans to build a $425 million Ethereum-based treasury, positioning itself as a benchmark for institutional on-chain finance.
Set to close by August 1, the private investment deal (PIPE) will raise the capital through stock sales priced at $2.65 per share. Backers include major crypto players like Electric Capital, Polychain, Harbour Island, and key figures from Lido and Compound. The entire sum will be allocated to Ethereum, establishing it as the company’s primary treasury reserve—mirroring similar moves by firms like SharpLink Gaming, which now holds over 438,000 ETH.
ETHZilla isn’t just stockpiling ETH—it’s going fully on-chain. The company plans to deploy its assets using staking, lending, liquidity provisioning, and structured DeFi agreements, all managed externally by Electric Capital. The objective: generate stronger returns than traditional staking while carefully managing risk.
To complement this strategy, ETHZilla received clearance to raise an additional $150 million through a future debt issuance. Meanwhile, a new DeFi group called Etherealize—led by developers from some of Ethereum’s top protocols—will help guide treasury deployment and ecosystem participation.
The firm aims to go public after this private round, but its shares will remain unavailable on the open market until regulatory filings are complete. ETHZilla’s long-term mission? To serve as a flagship public company for Ethereum-based treasury management.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $3,770.65, up 0.22% on the day, with trading volumes nearing $36.25 billion, reflecting steady investor engagement as institutional interest continues to climb.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
