Peter Thiel and entities tied to Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla, the publicly traded Ethereum treasury play that once marketed itself as a proxy bet on corporate ETH accumulation. A Schedule 13G/A filed Tuesday shows the reporting group finished 2025 with no remaining common shares, wiping out a position that had been closely watched across both crypto and small-cap equity circles.
Thiel Exists Ethereum Treasury Play
The amended filing, dated Feb. 17, 2026, is unusually blunt on the current footprint: “Aggregate amount… 0.00. Percent of class… 0.0%. Ownership of 5 percent or less of a class.” The positions are reported as of Dec. 31, 2025, meaning the exit was completed by year-end.
PETER THIEL EXITS ETHEREUM DAT “ETHZILLA” AMID $ETHZ TOKENIZED JET ENGINE FOCUS: FILING pic.twitter.com/nnMeT32LQ4
— Aggr News (@AggrNews) February 18, 2026
That zeroed-out line item is a sharp contrast to what Thiel-related vehicles disclosed just a quarter earlier. In a prior Schedule 13G/A reporting holdings as of Sept. 30, 2025, Thiel was listed with 928,389 shares beneficially owned, representing 5.6% of the class at that time, with additional blocks attributed to Founders Fund entities. The same filing noted the company’s 1-for-10 reverse stock split effective Oct. 20, 2025, with reported share counts adjusted accordingly.
ETHZilla’s story arc matters because it tried to translate the Bitcoin treasury template into an ETH-native wrapper at a moment when public-market vehicles were being pitched as liquid, leverable on-ramps to digital asset exposure. Thiel’s initial involvement, widely reported as a 7.5% stake disclosed in August 2025, helped legitimize that pitch, at least briefly.
More recently, ETHZilla has been signaling a pivot away from a pure ETH-treasury identity and toward tokenized real-world assets, including aviation. In an 8-K tied to a Feb. 12 press release, the company said its subsidiary launched “Eurus Aero Token I,” describing it as “a tokenized real-world asset instrument” that gives exposure to aircraft engines on lease “through tradable digital tokens representing contractual revenue rights.”
The sequencing leaves traders with an uncomfortable, unresolved question: did Founders Fund’s exit precede (and implicitly front-run) the strategy shift, or was it simply a portfolio cleanup after the initial “ETH treasury” narrative cooled?
On X, one commentator framed Thiel’s timing as part of a broader pattern, though several of the post’s claims go beyond what’s in the SEC filing. The account @treebook78 called Thiel a “master at sensing crises,” writing that he “dodged this current dip too,” and arguing he’s an “exit master” who gets out early when bubbles or stress build.
“Back in 2022, he posted diamond hands on SNS telling people to hold Bitcoin forever, but then he quietly sold everything and avoided the Luna crash and FTX collapse (as I recall),” @treebook78 wrote.
At press time, Ethereum traded at $1,984.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday published a Schedule 13G filing that entities controlled by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund have quietly amassed 5,094,000 common shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE American: BMNR), an Ethereum treasury company , equal to 9.1 percent of the company’s outstanding stock as of July 8 — the first time the billionaire venture capitalist has taken a material position in a publicly listed “Ethereum‑treasury” play. The filing lists the stake across six Delaware vehicles, but names Thiel as the ultimate manager with shared voting and dispositive power; it also checks the passive‑investor box, signalling no immediate intent to seek control of the Las Vegas‑based firm.
Ethereum Scores Major Backer
News of the disclosure sent BitMine shares up more than 12 percent to $44.97 in post‑market trading, adding roughly $280 million to a market capitalisation that has already ballooned. The after‑hours move extends a wild rally that saw the stock surge 3,000 percent in the week to July 3 after BitMine revealed a $250 million private placement earmarked entirely for Ethereum purchases and installed Fundstrat co‑founder Thomas “Tom” Lee as board chairman.
BitMine’s pace of accumulation has been even faster than its share‑price ascent. In a press release dated July 14 the company said it now holds 163,142 ETH — roughly $500 million at the time — barely three business days after closing the initial raise. “Since closing on the $250 million private placement, we have surpassed $500 million in Ethereum holdings, which validates our mission to increase our stake in the Ethereum network,” Lee said. Chief executive Jonathan Bates added that “Wall Street is getting ‘ETH‑pilled.’”
Lee, long known for his Bitcoin price targets, is positioning BitMine as the Ethereum analogue to MicroStrategy: a corporate balancesheet vehicle designed to scale into a strategic, yield‑bearing crypto reserve. “Among Bitcoin treasury companies we have witnessed the reflexive benefit of acquiring large holdings… Similarly, ETH treasuries which accumulate 5 percent of ETH supply can benefit from a comparable ‘Wall Street put,’” he argued in the same statement — invoking the idea that massive on‑balance‑sheet crypto positions can create a floor under the equity itself.
Thiel’s entrance adds marquee validation to that thesis. The 13G shows the purchase price was not disclosed, but the 5.1 million‑share block underscores the scale of the bet. Because the filing came under Rule 13d‑1(c), Thiel is signalling a passive stance — at least for now — yet his long‑standing interest in Ethereum is well documented: the Thiel Foundation’s 2014 fellowship famously bankrolled Vitalik Buterin’s decision to drop out of university to build the protocol.
The Ethereum community greeted the news with typical bombast. “ETH is going so much higher than you can even imagine,” wrote podcaster and on‑chain analyst @sassal0x. Bankless co‑founder Ryan Sean Adams confessed he “had not been bullish enough,” while macro trader Mortensen Bach urged followers to keep BitMine on their watchlists: “Things are starting to be interesting – This one should be on top of your watchlist. Question is? Do you buy in now in anticipation of ETH treasury doubling. What I mean is that if they increase ETH holding massively, it can grow into a much better valuation.”
Institutional appetite for Ethereum balance‑sheet strategies has accelerated in recent weeks. Corporate treasuries toward ETH‑staking as a yield‑bearing alternative to Bitcoin, with BitMine, Bit Digital and SharpLink have each experienced double‑digit stock pops after announcing similar plans.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,137.
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Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, did not mince words when he announced his “enemies list,” an attempt to call out anti-crypto investors during a keynote address Thursday at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami.
During the occasion, the lightning-rod venture investor referred to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett as “a psychotic grandpa from Omaha.”
“We’re going to do everything we can to expose them,” Thiel stated. He then referred to Buffett as his “Enemy No. 1,” multiple reports said.
Thiel advocated that conventional investors should fund Bitcoin. “Their decision not to allocate to Bitcoin is a fundamentally political one, and we need to push back against them,” Thiel added.
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Attacking The Old People
Thiel refers to Buffett, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as a “gerontocracy” opposing a revolutionary cryptocurrency movement.
Thiel, who owns Bitcoin, has invested in blockchain-based firms and cryptocurrency exchanges through his venture capital firm Founders Fund. He has also reportedly been a member of a group that finances Republican campaigns.
Thiel accused the three banking moguls of enabling a system that has institutional and political prejudices against Bitcoin after he tossed a bundle of $100 bills to people in the building’s first row.
Thiel asserts:
“Central banks are bankrupt. We have reached the end of the fiat money regime.”
Thiel believes Bitcoin is the apex of the alternative financial system.
“Even owning a stock entails investing in something akin to a government-linked entity. Companies – woke companies — are quasi-government-controlled in a way that Bitcoin will never be,” he explained.
BTC total market cap at $825.46 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Upbeat On Bitcoin’s Future
Thiel asserted that bitcoin’s price might yet grow by a factor of 100. The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $43,665, down more than 30% from November’s highs.
However, before Bitcoin reaches a price of around $4.3 million per coin, it will need to see significant additional adoption led by huge institutions, Thiel said. That is where Buffett and the other “enemy” enter the picture. They wield sufficient authority to avert such a transformation.
Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha,” did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment immediately. Jamie Dimon’s spokesman declined to comment.
… But Doubtful About Ethereum
Additionally, Thiel took a shot at Ethereum:
“Bitcoin is not Ethereum as a payment system or an e-gold; it is more akin to the S&P 500 or the stock market in general,” he explained.
Although Ethereum is the second-most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Thiel expressed doubts about its long-term viability.
Bitcoin 2022 is the world’s largest bitcoin conference, taking place in Miami, Florida. It’s happening at the Miami Beach Convention Center from April 6-9 and is currently attracting more than 35,000 attendees and over 7 million livestream viewers around the globe.
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Billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said he should have bought more Bitcoin. During an interview hosted by the Lincoln Network in Miami on Wednesday, he spoke about cryptocurrencies, central banks, and Artificial Intelligence.
Miami has become a hotspot for crypto investors. Several crypto startups recently announced new offices in the city. The PayPal co-founder’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, was also an early promoter of Miami as a new tech hub.
Peter Thiel Praises Crypto
During the Miami event, Thiel praised cryptocurrencies and admitted that he may have underinvested in Bitcoin.
“You’re supposed to just buy Bitcoin,” he said, adding: “I feel like I’ve been underinvested in it.” Thiel further pointed out that his only hesitation about investing was that he thought “the secret was already known by everybody.” He concluded by saying “I think the answers are still to go long. Maybe it still is enough of a secret.”
He made these statements after Bitcoin blasted to an all-time high of over $67,000 on Wednesday. Thiel deliberated whether it would rise further. “Bitcoin at $66,000. Is it going to go up? Maybe,” He also added that the surge in crypto prices, “tells us that we are at a complete bankruptcy moment for the central banks.”
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In the interview, the tech investor also criticized Artificial Intelligence as a disputant to cryptocurrency. He likened crypto to his political philosophy of being libertarian because it’s a “force for decentralization,”
Therefore, “AI, especially the sort of low-tech, surveillance form, is essentially communist,” because it’s a force for centralization. Thiel further said that he does not want to outlaw AI. Instead, he would like the people building it to “think about how they’re working on a technology that’s going to destroy the world.”
Thiel’s Relationship With Bitcoin
The tech investor has been a Bitcoin believer for a while now. Even in 2018, when Bitcoin’s price was bottoming, Thiel maintained his stance. “I would be long on bitcoin,” he stated.
Related Reading | Billionaire Peter Thiel: Bitcoin’s Potential is Underestimated
Earlier this week, he also talked about Bitcoin at an event hosted by conservative law group Federalist Society. The PayPal co-founder suggested that Bitcoin’s current bull run points to weaknesses in the U.S. political system. “I don’t know that you should put all your money into Bitcoin at $60,000 a Bitcoin right now,” he said.
“But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign,” he continued. Describing Bitcoin as “the canary in the coal mine,” Thiel said, “It’s the most honest market we have in the country, and it’s telling us that this decrepit … regime is just about to blow up.”
BTC trading at over $65K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
In April, while suggesting that Bitcoin may be ‘Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.’, Thiel described himself as a “pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin maximalist,”
Thiel explained that “From China’s point of view, they want to get — they don’t like the U.S. having this reserve currency, because it gives us a lot of leverage over Iranian oil supply chains and all sorts of things like that,”
He expressed concern with the Chinese government’s goal to weaken the U.S. dollar. However, weeks later, China defied his predictions by launching a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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