Who’s Peter Thiel, and what’s his crypto treasury technique?
Peter Thiel has quietly established a big footprint in crypto treasuries by backing firms that spend money on Ethereum. This method offers him important oblique publicity to the cryptocurrency’s development whereas staying aligned together with his broader enterprise capital technique.
Peter Thiel, finest often known as the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, approaches crypto publicity by an oblique path. As an alternative of merely shopping for Ether (ETH) on stability sheets like Saylor does with Bitcoin (BTC), Thiel’s play is to take important stakes in firms that remodel themselves into Ether-treasury autos. This technique offers him publicity to ETH’s upside whereas embedding his capital in corporations that may rally markets.
Thiel, by his funds, has backed firms like ETHZilla and BitMine Immersion, each of which later grew to become Ether-holding entities.
ETHZilla, previously Nasdaq-listed 180 Life Sciences, introduced a $425-million personal funding in personal fairness deal to construct an Ether treasury and gained approval to problem one other $150 million in debt securities. Electrical Capital will handle its onchain yield packages.
BitMine, in the meantime, has raised a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands to amass greater than 1.52 million ETH value $6.6 billion, together with 373,000 tokens added throughout Ether’s newest resurgence. By investing in these corporations relatively than shopping for Ether instantly, Thiel captures each fairness upside and crypto-treasury publicity. This is identical uneven playbook he used with Fb and Palantir.
For Thiel, the preliminary selection of Ether over Bitcoin was strategic. By concentrating on ETH-treasury corporations, he positions himself within the ecosystem the place new monetary infrastructure is being developed. In his view, this provides Ether increased long-term optionality than Bitcoin’s store-of-value mannequin, making ETH-treasury bets extra enticing as uneven investments.
Do you know? Peter Thiel co-founded Bullish, a cryptocurrency alternate that launched in 2021 and was valued at greater than $7 billion on the time. It raised $1.1 billion in its preliminary public providing and goals to transform a lot of that into stablecoins, indicating an institutional treasury shift towards crypto-native liquidity programs.
Who’s Michael Saylor, and what’s his crypto treasury technique?
Michael Saylor has turn into the face of company Bitcoin adoption, turning a once-ordinary software program firm into the world’s greatest BTC treasury automobile.
Michael Saylor is the manager chairman of Technique (beforehand MicroStrategy), a US tech firm that shifted its focus in 2020 to turn into the most important company Bitcoin holder. Since then, Saylor has adopted Bitcoin as a reserve asset and hedge towards fiat inflation.
Saylor’s technique is straightforward but daring: use fairness and most well-liked inventory choices and occasional debt to boost capital that’s then transformed into Bitcoin.
In line with BitcoinTreasuries.web, as of August 2025, Technique holds roughly 629,000 BTC, which is almost 64% of all public-company treasury holdings. The corporate continues to increase its holdings by rigorously timed purchases, even throughout worth volatility.
Guided by Saylor, Technique maintains a gentle accumulation coverage, financing it by modern instruments comparable to at-the-market fairness gross sales, perpetual most well-liked inventory and convertible debt.
To have a good time 5 years of Bitcoin adoption, the corporate bought over 585 BTC for $69 million in August 2025 alone. These steps point out Saylor’s staunch dedication and capability to construct an organization stability sheet round Bitcoin as a structural asset, even when market situations appear unclear.
Treasury strategic bets in contrast: Thiel vs. Saylor
At first look, each Michael Saylor and Peter Thiel are chasing the identical endgame: utilizing crypto as a treasury reserve technique to generate long-term worth. But their strategies and the ecosystems they’ve chosen couldn’t be extra totally different.
Saylor’s Bitcoin accumulation has turn into nearly mechanical. MicroStrategy raises capital by fairness dilution, convertible notes and even perpetual most well-liked shares earlier than steadily channeling it into Bitcoin.
Regardless of holding shut to three% of the entire provide, the corporate’s technique doesn’t rattle markets. Executives say its reliance on over-the-counter desks retains slippage low and avoids worth shocks. The result is a treasury mannequin that feels predictable, clear and constructed for many years of regular accumulation.
In distinction, Thiel’s Ether wager is constructed on a special basis. He views ETH as programmable capital — kind of a gasoline for functions, good contracts and tokenized markets.
His technique includes figuring out underpriced or underutilized firms, backing them financially and inspiring them to pivot into Ether treasury fashions.
Quite than betting solely on ETH’s shortage, Thiel is tying his publicity to Ether’s function in broader institutional adoption, the place tokenized finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure might seize new capital flows.
One attention-grabbing implication is liquidity. Saylor’s BTC is locked away on Technique’s stability sheet, immovable besides by future asset gross sales. Thiel, nonetheless, can exit or increase positions by shifting fairness stakes in ETH-treasury corporations.
That flexibility makes his publicity extra dynamic but additionally riskier: Firm valuations are tied not simply to ETH costs however to company governance and execution.
In follow, each methods create ripple results. Saylor’s relentless shopping for has normalized the thought of firms holding Bitcoin as a major treasury reserve. Thiel’s Ether pivots are actually setting an analogous precedent on the ETH facet, displaying that public firms can restructure themselves completely round crypto holdings.
The place Saylor demonstrated scale and conviction, Thiel is demonstrating agility and innovation.
Who’s making smarter crypto treasury bets?
When evaluating Peter Thiel’s and Michael Saylor’s treasury methods, the distinction is as a lot about philosophy and execution as it’s about sheer numbers.
Each Thiel and Saylor have sizable positions within the crypto market, however they obtain publicity in essentially alternative ways, creating distinct threat‑reward profiles.
Peter Thiel’s technique in focus
Thiel’s “strategic agility” permits him to seize uneven upside with out holding ETH instantly:
- Capital deployment flexibility: Thiel can deploy giant capital shortly into firms displaying upside potential post-pivot, benefiting from coordinated token accumulation and inventory worth rerating.
- VC background: Thiel’s VC background permits him to search for corporations with optionality, scalable upside and the potential to compound positive factors if ETH turns into extra embedded in monetary rails.
- Oblique publicity advantages: Dangers embrace reliance on administration execution, thinner liquidity in some targets and lack of direct management over token reserves. The upside, nonetheless, is avoiding direct custody or regulatory publicity to ETH itself.
Michael Saylor’s technique in focus
Saylor’s method benefit comes from course of and consistency, not from market timing or speculative performs:
- Price-averaging: Common purchases clean out worth volatility, making a long-term accumulation benefit.
- Layered financing: Utilizing fairness, most well-liked shares and convertible debt to sustainably fund new purchases, even when the corporate’s market-to-net-asset-value premium (mNAV) drops.
- Scale and transparency: The mannequin is extremely seen to buyers, regulators and the market, signaling confidence and dedication to BTC as a treasury reserve.
Whose crypto treasury bets are smarter?
Saylor’s power is in constructing reserves utilizing market dips and clear capital frameworks. It’s a play for long-term accumulation and balance-sheet power.
Thiel’s benefit lies in strategic agility: Smaller corporations, increased potential return on funding and oblique publicity which will outperform if ETH demand and reserves surge.
For a scalable, clear, long-term treasury build-out, Saylor’s mannequin is stronger. For higher-beta, venture-style upside using macro momentum in Ether, Thiel’s method might yield outsized returns.
Finally, the distinction is evident: One technique is about constructing an impregnable fortress of reserves, whereas the opposite is about using waves of institutional realignment.
