“That’s the guy that buys up all the $BTC!”, you may recall. Well, that’s right.
But now, there’s a new guy — Tom Lee, that’s looking to do the same with his own company Bitmine (BMNR), but for $ETH.
Who Is Tom Lee?
Tom Lee is a Wall Street strategist, Fund Strat Capital CIO and a market researcher. On CNBC, Tom Lee is a crypto/macro-based mainstay. On top of that, he was recently appointed as BitMine’s chairman.
Wall Street strategist Tom Lee is aiming to create the MicroStrategy of Ethereum – Very bullish for ETH pic.twitter.com/gVXDdQgUyR
— Selvin (@Mandalorian_8) June 30, 2025
BitMine’s $250 Million Private Placement
Yes, you heard that right. BitMine has launched a $250 million private placement for its shares, priced at $4.50/share. The capital raised will then go straight to acquiring $ETH and staking it. With this, BitMine aims to be the largest holder of $ETH as a publicly-traded company. This will change the trajectory of the firm — from pure $BTC mining to an $ETH treasury-based company.
As of now, the private placement involves heavyweight participants in the crypto space, such as Pantera, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Founder’s Fund.
3/ The plan kicked off with a $250 M private placement priced at $4.50 per share. Investors span TradFi and crypto heavyweights: Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, Kraken and more. Deal closes July 3.
— Eric Conner (@econoar) June 30, 2025
Why Choose Ethereum?
BitMine has chosen to become the “MicroStrategy of $ETH” for a multitude of reasons. Aside from being the top Layer 1 and top altcoin, other reasons include:
$ETH as a yield-bearing asset ($ETH can be staked).
Ethereum is the leading chain for stablecoin activity.
Ethereum has the largest TVL for RWA and DeFi.
Ethereum has the strongest Layer 2 ecosystem by far.
And it seems Mr. Market is bullish on BitMine’s new strategy. Once the announcement was made, shares of BitMine shot up over 500% on the NYSE from 30 June 2025.
Timing of the Move
Looking at macro events, we could be on the cusp of the Federal Reserve’s move to cut interest rates. This would unlock liquidity in global markets, some of which would flow into altcoins. Furthermore, $ETH spot ETFs are looking to begin inflows in Q3 2025, which will provide demand. Yields are also high for $ETH staking (up to 4% as of time of writing).
Couple the above tailwinds with a tried-and-tested strategy (from Saylor’s MicroStrategy), this could prove to be a smart move by Tom Lee.
Competitors Stacking $ETH?
However, BitMine isn’t the only company that’s hopping on the $ETH bandwagon. Joe Lubin’s NASDAQ-listed SharpLink is raising $425 million to buy $ETH. Lubin plans to use Consensys infrastructure to manage its $ETH treasury.
Conclusion
It seems like the race to acquiring $ETH for companies is getting real. A new metric has emerged — $ETH/share — which gauges a company’s $ETH holdings per unit value of shares outstanding. As the top altcoin that’s proven its mettle, we expect more and more companies to be acquiring $ETH for its balance sheet in the near future.
