Tom Lee, CEO of publicly traded treasury company Ether BitMine, urged shareholders to support a proposal to dramatically raise the company’s authorized shares to 50 billion from 50 million, citing the potential need for future stock splits as Ether’s price affects the company’s valuation.
Leeward he said BitMine’s share price closely follows the price of Ether (ETH) and that he modeled potential future valuations using the ETH/Bitcoin ratio. According to Lee, ETH could reach $250,000 if Bitcoin (BTC) rises to $1 million, a scenario that would push BitMine’s stock price to a level he believes will be out of reach for most retail investors.
BitMine transitioned from operating as a Bitcoin mining and holding company to an ETH treasury strategy in 2025, but still retains some of its Bitcoin operations.
According to Lee, ETH hitting $250,000 puts BitMine shares at an “suggested price” of around $5,000 per share, which is far too exorbitant for most retail investors. “Not everyone wants the stock price to be $500, $1,500 or $5,000. Most people want the stock price to stay around $25.”
Lee said that if ETH reaches $250,000, BitMine would need to initiate a 100:1 stock split to maintain the share price at $25, which would leave 43 billion shares.
“Currently, there are 426 million shares outstanding, and we are trying to increase the number of authorized shares to 50 billion. This does not mean that we will issue 50 billion shares. That is what we want the total maximum shares to be,” Lee said.
Lee describes the problem of individual deviation. In finance, individual bias is the psychological tendency of investors to prioritize the number of shares or tokens they hold over investment return, risk-reward ratio, or other critical investment evaluation metrics.
Reactions to Lee application on X were overwhelmingly negative, with a few users arguing that increasing the permitted share limit is a dilutive move.
“Tom, allowing more shares looks suspicious and absurd because the stock could go up to $500. You can do it next year when they don’t throw it in the gutter” – user he wrote in response.
Related: BitMine locks up $1 billion in Ether as huge corporations invest in ETH for profit
BitMine buys another $98 million in ETH as holdings exceed $4 million
BitMine purchased 32,938 ETH on Tuesday, worth over $102 million at prices as of this writing.
In December, the company’s treasury accumulated 4 million ETH worth over $12 billion, which is when the company also began investing in ETH for profit.
Crypto staking refers to the process where validators lock tokens to secure the blockchain confirming the stake, allowing them to earn profits paid out in the staked token.
Warehouse: Bitcoin’s critical level is 82.5 thousand. dollars, Ethereum “not ready yet”: trade secrets
