ETHZilla purchases 2 jet engines to start leasing business after selling over $100 million worth of ETH holdings

BlockBeats News, January 25 — According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this Friday by Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla, it purchased two CFM56-7B24 aircraft engines for $12.2 million through its newly established subsidiary ETHZilla Aerospace LLC.

The documents show that these two engines are currently leased to a major airline, with ETHZilla hiring Aero Engine Solutions for daily management and paying a monthly fee. The transaction includes a buy-sell option agreement: at the end of the lease term, if the engines remain in good condition, either party can require the other to buy or sell at a price of $3 million per engine.

Behind this unconventional operation is the ongoing pressure faced by digital asset management companies due to the volatile downturn in the cryptocurrency market over the past few months. Many publicly listed companies that actively raised funds and accumulated tokens last year now see their stock prices significantly below the net value of their on-balance-sheet crypto assets, making it difficult for them to raise new funds. ETHZilla itself sold $40 million worth of ETH in October last year to implement a stock buyback plan, and in December, it reduced its ETH holdings by another $74.5 million to pay off debts. Its stock price has plummeted approximately 97% from its peak in August to date.

However, the purchase of aircraft engines may also be related to ETHZilla’s plans to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) on the blockchain. The company stated on Wednesday that it is building a scalable tokenization pipeline across asset classes, with predictable cash flows and global investor demand, and expects to launch its first tokenized asset products in the first quarter of this year.