Peter Thiel Bets Big: Acquires 9.1% Stake in Tom Lee’s Ethereum Treasury Powerhouse

Silicon Valley's contrarian king just doubled down on crypto—again. Peter Thiel's latest play? A 9.1% stake in Tom Lee's Ethereum-focused treasury firm, signaling institutional confidence in ETH's infrastructure plays.

Why it matters: When the PayPal Mafia's most notorious member backs a crypto venture, Wall Street's spreadsheet jockeys suddenly remember blockchain exists. Thiel's move follows his infamous 'BTC as digital gold' thesis—but this time, he's betting on the machine, not just the money.

The cynical take: Nothing makes TradFi flinch like a libertarian billionaire bypassing their precious ETFs to buy direct. Bonus points for doing it while SEC lawyers were probably golfing.

This amount more than doubled the $250 million it raised in a private placement just five days prior to the sale. The company’s efforts to accelerate its ETH stockpiling aligns with its performance metric goal of increasing ETH held per share through a combination of reinvestment of the firm’s cash flows.

Before directing their focus towards Ethereum, Bitmine Immersion Technologies had initially implemented a Bitcoin-focused treasury strategy in early June. On June 9, it purchased 100 BTC, followed by another Bitcoin purchase of 154.167 BTC in June 17. The purchase was made using funds raised from a June shares offering.

On June 30, Bitmine announced a significant $250 million private placement for Ethereum, making the shift from a bitcoin strategy to an ETH-focused one. On the same day, the firm Fundstrat founder Tom Lee was appointed as the new chairman of the company.

“Since closing on the $250 million private placement, we have surpassed $500 million in Ethereum holdings, which validates our mission to increase our stake in the Ethereum network,” said Lee in his statement.

After announcing that the company WOULD raise capital to add more ETH to its balance sheet, the stock surged by over 3,000%.