ETHZilla purchased 2 aircraft engines after selling off over $1 billion worth of ETH holdings to start a leasing business

Jan 25 — ETHZilla, an Ethereum-focused treasury firm, has purchased two CFM56-7B24 aircraft engines for $12.2 million through its newly formed subsidiary ETHZilla Aerospace LLC, per a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing submitted Friday. The engines are currently leased to a major airline, with ETHZilla hiring Aero Engine Solutions to handle daily management in exchange for a monthly fee. The deal includes a buy-sell option: at lease end, either party may request a $3 million per-engine buyout if the equipment remains in good condition. The unconventional move comes amid ongoing pressure on digital asset managers from months of crypto market volatility and downturn. Many public firms that raised funds to accumulate tokens last year now see their stock prices well below the net value of their on-chain crypto holdings, making new fundraising difficult. ETHZilla itself sold $40 million worth of ETH in October to fund a stock buyback, followed by $74.5 million in ETH sales in December to repay outstanding debt. Its stock has plunged roughly 97% from its August peak. The engine purchase may also tie to ETHZilla’s real-world asset (RWA) tokenization plans. The firm announced Wednesday it is building a scalable tokenization pipeline across asset classes with predictable cash flow and global investor demand, with its first RWA products expected to launch in Q1 2024.