Ethereum treasury firms lean on staking as ETF pressure builds: Report

Ethereum treasury companies are under pressure to generate revenue from staking and other yield strategies as spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) weaken the appeal of public companies that simply hold Ether ($ETH), according to a new Everstake report.

Staking accounted for an average of 60% of reported revenue among six $ETH treasury firms that separately disclosed staking-related income, the staking infrastructure provider said.

Everstake reviewed 15 publicly listed companies with $ETH treasury strategies and found that the firms in its sample that reported 2025 losses posted about $1.41 billion in combined net losses. Separately, BitMine Immersion Technologies reported a $9.02 billion net loss for the six months ended Feb. 28, though the figure was driven largely by unrealized losses on digital assets rather than operating losses, according to the report.

The 60% staking-revenue figure was based on six companies that separately disclosed staking-related income: BitMine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink, Bit Digital, Forum Markets, BTCS and FG Nexus. Companies that did not break out stakeholder-related rewards or had pending annual results were excluded from the calculation.

The report frames the shift as part of a broader repricing of digital asset treasury companies (DATs), which previously offered one of the few regulated ways for public-market investors to gain crypto exposure. Everstake argued that spot ETFs have weakened DATs’ passive-exposure premium, pushing treasury firms to justify valuations through staking, DeFi lending, MEV capture and other yield strategies.

$ETH treasury company data compiled by Everstake. Source: Everstake

“DATs that rely on passive exposure are being structurally repriced,” Everstake co-founder Bohdan Opryshko said in the report. He added that deployment is “no longer limited to standard protocol staking” and now includes liquid staking, DeFi lending and validator-level strategies.

Opryshko told Cointelegraph the study does not argue that staking revenue alone can support every $ETH treasury model or offset all risks. $ETH price volatility, dilution, net asset value discounts, financing costs and operating expenses can still outweigh staking yield, particularly for companies with weak capital structures or inefficient treasury management, he said.

He said the report’s point is narrower: “Passive $ETH accumulation is becoming harder to justify as a standalone public-market strategy, particularly after spot crypto ETFs gave investors cleaner access to passive exposure.”

In that environment, staking and other forms of active asset deployment may become “necessary, though not sufficient,” for $ETH treasury companies to sustain their models, he added.

ETFs matter, but may not be the only pressure point

Ignacio Aguirre, the chief marketing officer at crypto exchange Bitget, said spot ETFs have made it harder for $ETH treasury companies to justify a premium based on $ETH exposure alone. However, he cautioned against attributing the repricing entirely to ETFs.

“I would not over-attribute it to spot ETFs alone,” Aguirre told Cointelegraph. He said $ETH treasury companies are still equity vehicles, meaning investors also weigh $ETH price performance, balance sheet quality, dilution risk, treasury strategy, execution and broader market sentiment.

Aguirre said staking can improve the $ETH treasury model by creating a recurring revenue stream, though its impact depends on whether the yield is large enough to offset operating costs, dilution and volatility.

He added that staking-enabled $ETH ETFs could become a future pressure point for treasury companies, but described them as “more complementary than existential threats.”