Tom Lee's Crypto Company Is Imploding

TL;DR

Bitmine Immersion Technologies destroyed $7 billion in shareholder value by pivoting to an Ethereum treasury strategy built on misleading premises and bizarre moonshot investments.

Key Points

• 1.Bitmine pivoted from Bitcoin mining to Ethereum treasury in June 2025, hiring Tom Lee as chairman. The stock surged past $100 before crashing over 80%, partly because Ethereum itself lost more than half its value after its summer 2025 peak.
• 2.Ethereum's bull case collapsed due to layer-2 blockchains and protocol upgrades. These developments slashed gas fees to near zero, meaning stablecoin growth under the Genius Act never translated to increased ETH token demand — and circulating supply is again rising.
• 3.Tom Lee's justifications for Ethereum treasury companies were false or misleading. Bitmine generated only $11M revenue against $75M in G&A costs per quarter; staking yields of ~3% are trivially small, and the share-premium mechanism requires a constant supply of overvalued-stock buyers.
• 4.Bitmine made a $100M moonshot investment in Ако Holdings, accumulating Worldcoin treasury shares. Worldcoin has declined 80%+ since its ICO; Bitmine already holds ~$10M in unrealized losses and owns one-third of Ако's shares, making it difficult to exit without tanking the price further.
• 5.Bitmine invested $180M for a 4% stake in Beast Industries, valuing Mr. Beast's company at $4.5 billion. Tom Lee cited a future platform for digital items and financial services, but owning Ethereum provides no competitive NFT advantage — the investment appears designed to attract retail investor attention.
• 6.In total, Bitmine raised $19.3 billion issuing shares and warrants but holds only $12.2 billion in assets, destroying $7 billion in value. Ethereum per share has declined since November 2025 as dilution outpaced accumulation, and the stock now trades at a slight discount to net asset value, collapsing the entire bull case.