Peter Thiel In Massive Ethereum Treasury Bet Via BitMine Stake

Billionaire Peter Thiel is betting big on Ethereum, joining Fundstrat’s Tom Lee in an ETH treasury play via the purchase of a $250 million stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies.

A July 15 SEC filing shows Thiel’s Founders Fund acquired 5,094,000 shares, representing a 9.1% stake in the crypto mining and Ethereum treasury firm led by Fundstrat CIO Lee.

That disclosure follows an announcement at the end of June that Founders Fund had invested in BitMine. 

BitMine shares (BMNR) surged more than 19% in after-hours trading, according to Yahoo Finance. Over the past month, BMNR has soared 705%.

Crypto Heavyweights Join Thiel In BitMine Investment

Thiel and Fund Strat acquired the shares through a $250 million private offering that concluded on July 9. Other companies also participated in the round, including crypto heavyweights such as Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital and Kraken. 

During that private placement, over 55 million shares were sold at $4.50 each. The proceeds were then used by BitMine to buy more ETH.

Bitmine @BitMNR $BMNR doubles $ETH holdings to $500 million👇

– Private placement July 9th: $250 million of $ETH– 3 trading days later: $500 million of ETH (163,142 tokens)

Jonathan Bates, CEO of BitMine. “Clearly Wall Street is getting ‘ETH-pilled.’” https://t.co/MFtIV38DI2

— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FSInsight.com (@fundstrat) July 14, 2025

The SEC filing shows that Thiel’s investment was for a passive role, meaning he does not intend to influence control of BitMine.

BitMine One Of The Largest Corporate Ethereum Holders

BitMine, which was initially a Bitcoin mining-focused company, has transitioned to a treasury firm under CEO Jonathan Bates and recently-appointed Lee.

Ever since the company began with its Ethereum treasury plan, the company has purchased 163,000 ETH. With the altcoin leader trading at $3,164.98 as of 3:24 a.m. EST, the holdings equate to over $515.8 million. This makes the firm one of the largest institutional holders of ETH.

ETH’s price also surged over 6% in the last 24 hours, pushing its gain over the past month to more than 20%. The crypto’s price is still down around 35% from the all-time high of $4,891.70 that it set on Nov. 16, 2021. 

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