ETHZilla drops ‘Ethereum treasury’ label as it rebrands to Forum Markets after brutal share price crash
Former Ethereum treasury vehicle ETHZilla is attempting to reinvent itself after a spectacular stock collapse, abandoning its identity as a proxy for Ethereum and pivoting toward tokenized real‑world assets under a new name: Forum Markets.
The company said it will officially adopt the Forum Markets brand and begin trading under a new Nasdaq ticker next month. The change formalizes a strategic retreat from its original plan to hold large amounts of Ethereum on its balance sheet and market its stock as a public gateway to the cryptocurrency.
From biotech longshot to Ethereum proxy
ETHZilla was not always a crypto‑focused firm. It initially operated as a biotech company before executing a dramatic pivot into digital assets. The transformation caught market attention in 2025, when the firm unveiled an ambitious plan to build a $425 million Ethereum treasury, positioning itself as a kind of listed “ETH holding company.”
That narrative briefly worked. ETHZilla’s shares surged to an all‑time high of $107 on August 13, 2025, just days after it announced the new strategy. At the time, bullish investors treated the stock as a leveraged bet on Ethereum’s long‑term prospects, with the corporate treasury plan adding a speculative, quasi‑ETF flavor to the equity.
Strategy unravels as price and confidence collapse
What looked like a bold, high‑conviction crypto play soon turned into a liability. As market enthusiasm cooled and the share price rolled over, ETHZilla’s Ethereum‑centric thesis came under pressure.
The stock dropped sharply from its 2025 peak, and the company’s attempt to serve as a publicly traded Ethereum proxy began to unravel. The decline triggered a wave of investor exits, eroding liquidity and further weighing on sentiment.
In response, management started unloading assets and gradually pared back its exposure to Ethereum rather than continuing to accumulate. That shift undermined the original treasury narrative and made the “Ethereum company” label increasingly difficult to justify.
Rebrand to Forum Markets: a clean break from the ETH treasury story
The upcoming rebrand to Forum Markets is designed to draw a line under that chapter. The company is explicitly distancing itself from its former positioning as an Ethereum treasury and instead framing its future around tokenized real‑world assets (RWAs).
Under the new strategy, Forum Markets intends to focus less on holding volatile crypto directly on its balance sheet and more on infrastructure, products, and markets tied to the tokenization of traditional financial instruments such as bonds, funds, and potentially other yield‑bearing assets.
In practice, this means:
– No longer marketing its equity as a simple play on Ethereum’s price
– Reducing direct exposure to ETH on the balance sheet
– Presenting itself as a platform and marketplace business rather than a de facto crypto treasury
– Aligning with a growing institutional narrative around regulated tokenized assets
The fresh Nasdaq ticker, set to go live next month, is both a branding exercise and a signal to investors that the company’s risk profile and business model are changing.
Market reaction: relief rally, but a long way from the top
Investors responded positively, at least in the short term. After the rebrand announcement, ETHZilla’s shares rose 13.3% on Wednesday to close at $3.91. That bounce suggests some shareholders view the shift to Forum Markets as a potential reset after a painful period.
Yet even with the double‑digit daily gain, the stock remains a shadow of its former self. At $3.91, shares are still down more than 96% from the $107 peak reached in August 2025. The scale of the drawdown underscores how thoroughly the original Ethereum treasury pitch has been repriced.
Why the Ethereum treasury model broke down
ETHZilla’s experience highlights several structural weaknesses in the “public ETH treasury” model:
1. Double volatility
Investors are exposed both to Ethereum’s price swings and to the company’s own execution risk. When sentiment turns, the equity can fall faster than the underlying crypto.
2. Narrative fragility
The appeal of a listed ETH proxy depends heavily on the company consistently accumulating or at least holding its crypto. Once ETHZilla began selling assets and cutting exposure, the core story that supported its valuation weakened.
3. Balance‑sheet pressure
Mark‑to‑market losses on crypto holdings can weigh on reported results, complicate capital planning, and distract management from building an operating business with recurring revenues.
4. Regulatory and governance uncertainty
Public markets still lack a clear consensus on how to value and govern companies whose main “asset” is a volatile token, particularly when business operations are underdeveloped relative to the size of the treasury.
These factors combined to turn what initially seemed like a creative way to “go public on Ethereum” into a drag on ETHZilla’s credibility and market performance.
Why pivot to tokenized real‑world assets now?
The move toward tokenized RWAs is not accidental. It taps into one of the few crypto‑adjacent themes currently attracting attention from both institutions and regulators.
Tokenized RWAs generally refer to blockchain‑based representations of traditional instruments like government bonds, money‑market funds, credit products, or even portfolios of loans. The pitch is that these tokens can:
– Settle faster and more transparently
– Offer programmability for collateral, lending, and structured products
– Enable fractional ownership and 24/7 trading
– Bridge on‑chain liquidity with off‑chain, regulated yields
By repositioning as Forum Markets, the company is signaling that it wants to:
– Anchor its future business on assets with clearer cash flows and yields
– Appeal to more risk‑aware investors than those seeking pure ETH beta
– Align itself with a narrative that regulators have been more willing to explore, such as digitized Treasuries or on‑chain fund shares
What the rebrand means for existing shareholders
For current investors, the transition to Forum Markets amounts to a fundamental change in what they own:
– Risk profile: Exposure should, in theory, move away from pure crypto price swings toward execution risk in building and scaling a tokenized asset marketplace.
– Valuation framework: Instead of valuing the firm largely as a leveraged ETH balance‑sheet play, investors will be pushed to assess potential revenues, margins, and growth in RWA tokenization.
– Narrative shift: The stock is no longer being pitched as a transparent Ethereum proxy, but as a fintech/crypto‑infra hybrid targeting the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain.
However, the rebrand and strategic pivot on their own do not erase previous losses or guarantee future performance. Execution, regulatory clarity, and product‑market fit will now matter far more than simple ETH price direction.
Challenges Forum Markets will need to overcome
The RWA space may be buzzy, but it is far from an easy path. Forum Markets will face several headwinds:
– Crowded field: A growing number of platforms, exchanges, custodians, and fintechs are already vying to dominate tokenized Treasuries and other RWAs. Differentiation will be key.
– Compliance burden: Any serious foray into real‑world assets requires robust legal structures, licensed partners or entities, and strict adherence to securities, KYC, and AML rules.
– Trust rebuilding: After a massive drawdown and a strategy reversal, management must convince both former and new investors that this pivot is driven by opportunity, not desperation.
– Liquidity questions: RWA markets are still relatively small and fragmented. Building deep, consistent liquidity on a new platform will be a multi‑year challenge.
How the pivot fits into the broader crypto‑equity landscape
ETHZilla’s journey reflects a broader shift in how listed companies engage with crypto:
– The first wave saw firms adding Bitcoin or Ethereum to their treasuries, aiming to ride upside and signal alignment with digital assets.
– The second wave, now emerging, is shifting focus toward infrastructure, compliance‑heavy products, and revenue‑generating services that connect crypto rails to traditional assets.
Forum Markets is effectively trying to leap from the first category to the second: from being “the Ethereum treasury stock” to being a business that earns fees and spreads on transactions, tokenization, and on‑chain finance.
Could Ethereum still play a role?
Even as Forum Markets distances itself from the Ethereum treasury label, Ethereum may remain relevant to its future. Many RWA initiatives choose Ethereum or Ethereum‑compatible chains as their settlement layer due to network effects, liquidity, and developer tooling.
In that sense, the company’s new model could keep it close to the Ethereum ecosystem while changing *how* it is exposed:
– Less via speculative ETH holdings
– More via infrastructure, smart contracts, and products that leverage Ethereum for token issuance, transfers, and settlement
This would allow Forum Markets to benefit from Ethereum’s growth as a financial backbone without tying its fate directly to the token’s price.
What to watch next
As the rebrand takes effect, several signals will indicate whether Forum Markets can turn its narrative reset into a sustainable business:
– Details on its first concrete tokenized products or partnerships
– How aggressively it continues to unwind any remaining Ethereum exposure
– Whether trading volumes and institutional interest in RWAs keep growing
– Management’s ability to outline a clear revenue model and timeline to profitability
For now, the company has secured a short‑term reprieve in the form of a share price bounce and a cleaner story. But the gap between $3.91 and the $107 peak underlines how much value has already been destroyed-and how much work remains if Forum Markets is to be seen as more than a rebranded casualty of the last Ethereum cycle.