MSTR Bitcoin Sale May Mark Turning Point For Ethereum – With BMNR, SBET Stocks Poised To Benefit, Says Standard Chartered

• Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick said Strategy’s first Bitcoin sale since 2022 may mark the beginning of a period of Ethereum outperformance versus Bitcoin.
• Kendrick stated that Ethereum treasury companies have an advantage because staking rewards generate income, reducing the need to sell assets to fund operations.
• He identified Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming as potential beneficiaries of increased investor interest in Ethereum treasury companies.

Standard Chartered's lead cryptocurrency analyst said on Tuesday that Strategy's (MSTR) first Bitcoin (BTC) sale since 2022 may have started a new chapter, where Ethereum (ETH) outperforms the apex cryptocurrency. 

Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, said the key driver is the structural difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury companies. "I see yesterday as being the start of ETH outperformance v BTC," he wrote in a note emailed to Stocktwits, following Strategy's disclosure that it sold 32 Bitcoin during the last week of May.

Bitcoin’s price fell more than 5% in the last 24 hours to $67,100, while Ethereum’s price dipped 2.7% to around $1,910. Both were among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing. Retail sentiment around Bitcoin trended in ‘extremely bearish’ territory over the past day, while sentiment around Ethereum improved to ‘bearish’ from the ‘extremely bearish’ zone. 

Why MSTR's 32 BTC Sale Moved the Market

Strategy sold just 32 Bitcoin last week. It still holds 843,706 BTC. Kendrick called the amount "ridiculously small," but the market's reaction told a different story.

He noted that Monday's session was one of the largest ETH-BTC topside moves in the past few years, pointing out that only 23 days since the start of 2024 have seen a larger relative move by ETH on a Bitcoin down-day.

According to Kendrick, the market read Strategy's sale as a structural data point, not just a one-off transaction, and rotated accordingly. He forecast that the ETH/BTC ratio will rise to 0.040 by the end of the year from roughly 0.028 currently. That would imply more than 40% relative outperformance for Ethereum. 

Why ETH Treasury Companies Don't Need to Sell

Kendrick’s thesis centers on the fact that Ethereum treasury companies can generate income through staking, while Bitcoin treasury companies cannot.

Ethereum currently offers staking yields of roughly 3%, allowing treasury companies to earn income on their holdings without selling assets. Bitcoin, by contrast, produces no native yield. Strategy's sale made that gap visible, Kendrick said. He expects investors to reprice ETH treasury stocks higher as a result.

Last week, Kendrick compared Ethereum’s current position to Amazon (AMZN) shares during the aftermath of the dot-com crash, stating that underlying network fundamentals continue to strengthen despite weaker relative price performance.

BMNR, SBET Could Benefit From Ethereum Hype

Kendrick flagged two ETH DATs, Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) and SharpLink Gaming (SBET), as likely beneficiaries of this shift, expecting their market value-to-net-asset-value multiples (mNAVs) to move back above that of MSTR.

BMNR, which was uplisted to the NYSE in April 2026, currently holds 5.18 million ETH tokens, with 4.36 million staked via its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN) platform. 

SBET, which operates as an institutional-grade Ethereum treasury platform, reported total staking rewards since inception of 18,800 ETH as of last month. The company is also pursuing a partnership with Galaxy Digital's Onchain Yield Fund to further compound its ETH yield strategy.

Kendrick said the outlook remains intact even if Strategy resumes aggressive Bitcoin purchases. "I think this will be the case even if (as is likely) MSTR this week buys a large multiple of the 32 BTC it sold last week," he wrote.

BMNR’s stock was also among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits on Tuesday, falling nearly 6% in midday trade. Retail sentiment around the company shifted to ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral’ territory over the past day. Meanwhile, SBET’s stock dropped 5% and also saw retail sentiment drop to ‘bearish’ from the ‘neutral’ zone.

Read also: After Three Winning Calls, Arthur Hayes Is Betting Big On Sam Altman’s Crypto Project

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