Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion Technologies has secured a $250 million private placement to jumpstart its Ether treasury.
BitMine signed a private placement for the purchase and sale of 55,555,556 shares of common stock for $4.50 per share, yielding gross proceeds of approximately $250 million before expenses, the company said in a Monday announcement.
MOZAYYX led the raise, with participation from Founders Fund, Pantera, FalconX, Republic Digital, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, DCG, Diametric Capital, Occam Crest Management and Thomas Lee. The transaction is expected to close on Thursday, provided that conditions, including the authorization of the Supplemental Listing Application by the NYSE American, are met.
Thomas Lee, chairman of BitMine, said that stablecoins are “the ‘ChatGPT’ of crypto” and that he expects Ether (ETH) to appreciate thanks to their adoption. “Ethereum is the blockchain where the majority of stablecoin payments are transacted […] and thus, ETH should benefit from this growth,” he said.
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Corporate Ethereum treasuries are on the rise
BitMine’s announcement follows a series of recent moves by publicly traded firms to establish ETH-focused treasuries. A couple of weeks ago, sports betting platform SharpLink Gaming acquired 176,271 Ether for $463 million. This made the firm the world’s largest publicly traded holder of ETH.
The announcement followed SharpLink’s launch of its Ether treasury in late May. The firm also nominated Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin as chairman of its board of directors.
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With this announcement, BitMine, with its Bitcoin (BTC)-themed logo, is at least partially pivoting to Ethereum. Until this month, the firm’s treasury strategy focused on accumulating Bitcoin.
“BitMine is a Bitcoin and Ethereum Network Company with a focus on the accumulation of Crypto for long-term investment,” the company’s description in the announcement reads. BitcoinTreasuries.NET data indicates that BitMine currently holds 154 BTC worth roughly $17 million and is the 62nd largest corporate Bitcoin treasury.
BitMine is not alone in making the pivot. Last week, shares in Bit Digital fell by nearly 4% after the crypto mining firm announced it would wind down or sell its Bitcoin mining infrastructure and use the proceeds to buy more Ether. Shares then fell almost 19% over five days — with a 15% drop in 24 hours — soon thereafter.
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