Ether treasury firm ETHZilla (ETHZ) said it bought 20% of Karus, an AI-powered auto lending platform, in a deal valued at $10 million.
The deal marks ETHZilla’s entry into the US asset-backed securities market by using blockchain to tokenize real-world credit, the company said in a press release.
Karus specializes in artificial intelligence models that analyze risk at the loan level, using more than 20 million historical auto loan results and thousands of real-time variables.
ETHZilla plans to integrate the technology into its Ethereum-based infrastructure to tokenize loans, turning predictive credit data into tradable assets on-chain. The companies say the first tokenized loan wallets will be available in early 2026.
The transaction comprises $3 million in cash and $7 million in ETHZilla shares. ETHZilla will also gain access to Karus’ network of more than 20,000 U.S. auto dealers, banks and credit unions, the companies said.
Karus, backed by investors including Peter Thiel’s Tacora Capital, has processed more than $5 billion in auto loans through its decision-making engine.
ETHZilla shares are up nearly 5% since the opening bell to $11.17. The company has 94,060 ETH in its treasury, valued at around $290 million.
