The Ether treasury firm ETHZilla (ETHZ) announced its acquisition of a 20% stake in Karus, an AI-driven auto loans platform, through a deal valued at $10 million.
This agreement marks ETHZilla’s entrance into the U.S. asset-backed securities market, leveraging blockchain technology to tokenize real-world credit, as stated in a press release.
Karus focuses on AI models that assess loan-level risk, drawing from over 20 million historical auto loan results and thousands of real-time variables.
ETHZilla aims to incorporate this technology into its Ethereum-based infrastructure to tokenize the loans, transforming predictive credit data into tradable on-chain assets. The companies anticipate that the first tokenized loan portfolios will be available by early 2026.
The deal includes $3 million in cash and $7 million in ETHZilla stock. Additionally, ETHZilla will gain access to Karus’s network of over 20,000 U.S. car dealerships, banks, and credit unions, according to the companies.
Karus, supported by investors like Peter Thiel’s Tacora Capital, has processed over $5 billion in auto loans via its decision-making engine.
ETHZilla’s shares have increased nearly 5% since market opening, reaching $11.17. The company currently holds 94,060 ETH in its treasury, valued at approximately $290 million.
