Peter Thiel takes 9.1% stake in Tom Lee’s Ethereum treasury firm

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel recently bought a 9.1% stake in Fundstrat’s Ethereum Treasury company, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, according to a recent SEC filing.

The filed SEC document revealed that Peter Thiel has acquired 9.1% of the total shares to BMNR. BMNR is the trading stock of BitMine Immersion Technologies, a crypto mining firm led by founder and CIO of Fundstrat Tom Lee.

As of July 16, Peter Thiel now has shared voting power as well as shared dispositive power equal to the number of shares he holds, which is more than 5.09 million BMNR stocks. Peter Thiel joins a list of institutional backers who are investing in companies with crypto-focused treasury strategies.

Unfortunately, the news of Thiel backing Bitmine has barely affected the company’s stock price. On July 16, the BMNR stock has gone down by 2.58% in the past day of trading. However on a year-to-date basis, the stock price has soared by nearly 400%.

BitMine is known for its extensive Ethereum (ETH)-focused treasury strategy, having recently exceeded 163,142 ETH, valued at $3,072.67 per ETH. Its holdings are currently worth approximately $500 million.

Most recently, ETH surpassed the $3,000 threshold following BTC (BTC)’s lead in the ongoing crypto rally. At press time, ETH has increased by 6.33% in the past 24 hours, reaching a peak of $3,169.

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%.