Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Exits ETHZilla Amid Shift to Aviation RWA

The full divestment by Founders Fund marks a significant turning point for ETHZilla, a company that once positioned itself as the premier institutional gateway for Ethereum exposure. According to recent SEC filings, the venture capital firm led by billionaire Peter Thiel has reduced its position from a 7.5% stake in 2025 to zero. This move has sent shockwaves through the market, with ETZH shares sliding more than 5% in after-hours trading as investors digest the loss of one of the crypto industry's most influential backers. The exit is not just a liquidation of shares but a symbolic withdrawal of confidence in the specific treasury-as-a-service model that ETHZilla pioneered during the height of the crypto bull market.

ETHZilla’s rise was predicated on a strategy similar to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook, but centered on the Ethereum ecosystem. At its peak, the firm held over 100,000 Ether (ETH) in its corporate treasury, offering equity investors a regulated way to gain leveraged exposure to the second-largest cryptocurrency. However, the macro environment for Ethereum-heavy treasuries has shifted. While Bitcoin has maintained its status as a digital gold reserve, Ethereum’s value proposition has increasingly moved toward its utility as a settlement layer, leading to different volatility profiles and treasury management challenges that have strained firms like ETHZilla. The recent strain on ETH treasuries, cited in several filings, suggests that the cost of maintaining such a large, volatile position without significant yield-generating activities has become prohibitive for public companies.

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According to recent SEC filings, the venture capital firm led by billionaire Peter Thiel has reduced its position from a 7.5% stake in 2025 to zero.

In response to these pressures, ETHZilla has announced a radical strategic pivot away from its pure-play crypto treasury model. The company is now focusing on the tokenization of aviation assets, a move into the rapidly growing Real World Asset (RWA) sector. This transition aims to leverage blockchain technology to fractionalize ownership of high-value physical assets like commercial aircraft and engines, potentially providing more stable, cash-flow-producing revenue streams than simple token appreciation. This shift reflects a broader industry trend where firms are moving from speculative asset holding to building functional infrastructure for traditional finance. The move into aviation tokenization is particularly ambitious, as it requires navigating complex international regulatory frameworks and establishing deep ties with the aerospace industry.

The exit of Founders Fund suggests a cooling of venture capital appetite for simple proxy stocks. For years, Thiel’s fund was a bellwether for aggressive crypto bets, and its departure from ETHZilla may signal that the treasury-as-a-service model is no longer seen as a high-alpha play in a maturing market. Analysts suggest that Founders Fund may be reallocating capital toward more direct infrastructure plays or decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that offer yield rather than just price exposure. This reallocation is consistent with Thiel's historical investment philosophy of seeking zero to one innovations rather than maintaining positions in firms that have become legacy proxies for underlying assets that investors can now access through spot ETFs.

Looking forward, ETHZilla faces a steep uphill battle to prove its viability in the aviation sector without the Thiel premium supporting its valuation. The company must now execute a complex technical and regulatory transition to tokenize physical assets while managing its remaining ETH holdings. If the firm is forced to liquidate its 100,000 ETH to fund its new aviation venture, it could create localized sell pressure on the token. For the broader market, this event serves as a cautionary tale about the sustainability of single-asset corporate treasuries in an era where institutional investors are increasingly demanding utility and real-world integration over simple beta exposure. The success or failure of ETHZilla’s aviation pivot will likely be viewed as a litmus test for the viability of the RWA sector as a whole.