BitMine stock surges 400% as firm eyes $250 million raise for Ethereum treasury in bid to become top public ETH holder

BitMine Immersion Technologies (ticker BMNR) has signed a private placement agreement to raise $250 million by selling 55.6 million shares at $4.50 each, redirecting its balance-sheet play from bitcoin to ether.

The miner, which uplisted to the NYSE American in June and used an $18 million public offering to buy 100 BTC, now plans to inject every dollar of the new deal into ETH, multiplying its current crypto treasury more than 16-fold, according to a Monday statement. Investors include Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, who also became BitMine's new board chair.

Lee framed ether as a higher beta asset than bitcoin since stablecoins mainly settle on Ethereum, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent projects the stablecoin market could top $2 trillion by 2028.

"Ethereum is the blockchain where the majority of stablecoin payments are transacted and thus, ETH should benefit from this growth," Lee stated. Increasing ETH held per share will become a key metric for BitMine, he added.

BitMine shares surged 408% to around $21.67 at publication time, Yahoo Finance data show. The private placement is scheduled to close on July 3, pending approval from the NYSE American. The company's market cap stands at around $128 million.

The share sale will dilute existing holders but could vault BitMine toward the top tier of corporate ether treasuries. However, the firm faces stiff competition for the title of largest publicly traded ether holder. Minnesota-based affiliate marketing firm SharpLink (ticker SBET) has stacked 188,478 ETH following its second acquisition last week. Both Bitmine and Sharplink are eclipsed by the Ethereum Foundation’s 213,072 ETH stash, worth over $525 million with ether currently trading around $2,460, according to The Block’s price page.