Shares of the publicly traded Bitcoin mining company BitMine Immersion Technologies surged over 400% on Monday after news that the company raised $250 million through a private placement to build an Ethereum treasury.
New strategies and the involvement of major players
This fundraising round included participation from prominent cryptocurrency firms such as Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Kraken. Additionally, #Bitmine appointed Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Lee remarked that this transaction 'accurately reflects the rapid and ongoing convergence between traditional financial services and cryptocurrency.'
The private placement included the sale of over 55 million BMNR shares at $4.50 per share, with the proceeds to be used to create an Ethereum treasury. BitMine decided to switch to Ethereum because the protocol-level activities of this network, especially DeFi, staking, and stablecoins, are seen as distinguishing features. Tom Lee emphasized that stablecoins have proven to be the 'ChatGPT of crypto,' leading to rapid adoption by consumers, sellers, and financial service providers, with Ethereum being where most stablecoin transactions occur.
Market goals and impact
One of BitMine's key performance goals in the future is to increase the value of ETH held per share, through reinvestment of cash flow, capital market activities, and the value change of $ETH . BitMine is currently one of the few publicly listed companies choosing an Ethereum treasury, breaking the popular trend of building a Bitcoin treasury. Previously, SharpLink Gaming also adopted this strategy and has added over 188,000 ETH worth more than $460 million.
BitMine shares closed at $4.26 on Friday but jumped 447% to $23.35 on Monday morning.