Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH falls 3% despite SharpLink's $76.5 million direct offering to grow its treasury

Ethereum price today: $3,850

• SharpLink Gaming announced a $76.5 million direct offering to expand its Ethereum treasury.
• Citizens slaps a "market outperform" rating on SharpLink stock, predicting a 200% rally.
• ETH falls 3% after seeing a rejection near a descending trendline resistance and the $4,100 key level.

Ethereum (ETH) stretches its decline by 3% on Thursday following SharpLink Gaming's $76.5 million direct offering aimed at growing its treasury holdings.

SharpLink secures $76.5 million offering as Citizens predicts a 200% rise for its stock

Ethereum treasury and eSports marketing company SharpLink Gaming announced a $76.5 million direct offering to expand its ETH treasury.

The Minnesota-based firm sealed a purchase agreement with an unnamed institutional investor to sell 4.5 million shares of its common stock at $17.00 per share. The company said the sale comes at a 12% premium to the closing price of its stock on Wednesday and also at a premium to its net asset value.

"This is a novel equity sale transaction that is both accretive to stockholders and strategically structured, reflecting strong institutional confidence in SharpLink and our long-term vision," said Joseph Chalom, Co-CEO of SharpLink, adding that Ethereum is seeing massive adoption across stablecoins, tokenized assets and DeFi.

The firm could also receive an additional $78.8 million from the offering after granting the investor a 90-day premium purchase contract to purchase an extra 4.5 million shares at $17.50 per share before expiry on January 15, 2026.

SharpLink ranks as the second-largest Ethereum treasury with a stash of 840,124 ETH.

Before today, the company had failed to raise funds for new ETH acquisitions since announcing its last purchase on September 7. The pause follows a decline in its market-cap-to-net-asset-value (mNAV), with the firm resorting to share buybacks. During the period, its competitor BitMine continued expanding its holdings, with its stash now worth more than 3 million ETH — over 3x that of SharpLink, according to data from the StrategicETHReserve.

Meanwhile, Citizens JMP Securities initiated coverage on SharpLink Gaming with a "market outperform" rating, backed by a $50 price target — a 200% increase. The firm expects SharpLink's net asset value per share to reach $35 by the end of 2026, citing potential ETH appreciation, staking yield and management's ability as potential catalysts.

SharpLink shares closed trading at $14.57 on Thursday, down 3.8%.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH sees rejection at descending trendline and $4,100 key level

Ethereum saw $160.4 million in futures liquidations over the past 24 hours, spearheaded by $98 million in long liquidations, per Coinglass data.

ETH continued its decline, falling by another 3% on the day after seeing a rejection near the descending trendline extending from October 7. With bulls failing to recover the $4,100 support, ETH is testing the $3,815 level. A failure to hold $3,815 could see the top altcoin decline toward the support near $3,470.

ETH/USDT daily chart

On the upside, ETH has to overcome the descending trendline resistance and recover the $4,100 support to maintain a bullish structure.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) are below their neutral levels and declining, indicating a dominant bearish momentum.