Peter Thiel’s Sudden Exit From ETHZilla Shakes Confidence in Corporate Ethereum Play

A high-profile crypto treasury experiment just lost one of its most influential backers.

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel has fully exited his position in ETHZilla (NASDAQ: ETZH), a company that once touted his involvement as a powerful validation of Ethereum as a corporate reserve asset.

The move, disclosed in a Feb. 17, 2026 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reveals that Thiel and affiliated entities now hold zero shares in the firm—an abrupt reversal from the 7.5% stake he reported just months earlier.

When Thiel first disclosed his investment last August, markets interpreted it as a watershed moment for Ethereum-based treasury strategies.
The comparison was immediate: just as Michael Saylor helped normalize corporate Bitcoin accumulation through Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), Thiel’s backing appeared to signal institutional confidence in Ethereum as the next balance-sheet asset.

Now, that narrative has shifted.

The amended filing shows:

For a figure known for long-horizon, conviction-driven bets, the full liquidation has raised questions about whether the Ethereum treasury model is still in its proving phase.

Despite the ETHZilla exit, Thiel-linked Founders Fund has not abandoned Ethereum exposure altogether.

Regulatory disclosures show the fund holds more than 9% of BitMine Immersion, the digital-asset treasury firm led by market strategist Tom Lee—currently the largest public holder of ETH among treasury-style companies.

The contrast suggests a rotation rather than a retreat, potentially signaling a preference for scale, structure, or execution differences between the firms.

ETHZilla’s story has been anything but conventional.

Originally launched as 180 Life Sciences Corp, the Palm Beach–based company abandoned its biotech focus in August 2025 to pursue an Ethereum accumulation strategy. At its peak, the firm amassed over 100,000 ETH, positioning itself as a flagship example of publicly traded companies adopting crypto-native treasury models.

Today, according to data from CoinGecko, ETHZilla holds 69,802 ETH, valued at roughly $140 million, still ranking it among the top 10 public corporate holders of Ethereum.

Rather than retreat, ETHZilla has leaned further into experimentation.

The company recently unveiled ETHZilla Aerospace, an initiative aimed at offering tokenized equity tied to leased jet engines—a move blending real-world assets with blockchain-based financial structuring.

The pivot underscores the firm’s willingness to evolve rapidly, though critics argue such shifts may complicate investor understanding of its long-term identity.

Investors responded cautiously to the disclosure:

The divergence highlights a key distinction: confidence in ETH as an asset remains intact, while conviction in specific corporate wrappers around it may be less certain.

Thiel’s withdrawal does not necessarily signal bearishness on Ethereum—but it does challenge the idea that simply holding ETH on a corporate balance sheet guarantees investor enthusiasm.

Instead, his repositioning hints at a maturing phase for crypto treasury companies, where:

In other words, the era of headline-driven validation may be giving way to performance-driven scrutiny.

As crypto continues its migration into public markets, ETHZilla’s journey—and Thiel’s reversal—may ultimately serve as a case study in how fast conviction can evolve when Wall Street meets Web3 experimentation.