according to documents submitted by Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this Friday, it acquired 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 to handle daily management and pay a monthly fee. The transaction includes a buy-sell option agreement: if the engines remain in good condition at the end of the lease, 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 on digital asset management companies caused by the cryptocurrency market downturn over the past several months. Many listed companies that actively raised funds and stockpiled tokens last year now have stock prices significantly below the net value of their on-book 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 repurchase plan, and then reduced its holdings by $74.5 million ETH in December to repay outstanding debt. Its stock price has plummeted about 97% since the peak in August.

However, the purchase of aircraft engines may also be related to ETHZilla’s plan to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) on-chain. 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 batch of tokenized asset products in the first quarter of this year.