Tom Lee, chairman of publicly listed Ether treasury company BitMine, urged shareholders to back a proposal to dramatically increase the company’s authorized share count to 50 billion from 50 million, citing the potential need for future stock splits as Ether’s price drives the the company’s valuation.
Lee said BitMine’s share price closely tracks 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) climbs to $1 million, a scenario that would push BitMine’s share price to levels he said would be inaccessible for most retail investors.
BitMine shifted from operating as a Bitcoin mining and holding company to an ETH treasury strategy in 2025, but it still retains some of its Bitcoin operations.
ETH reaching $250,000 puts BitMine shares at an “implied price” of about $5,000 per share, according to Lee, which is far too expensive for most retail investors. “Not everybody wants a stock price at $500, $1,500, or $5,000. Most people want shares to stay at around $25.”
Lee said if ETH hits $250,000, BitMine would have to initiate a 100:1 stock split to maintain a share price of $25, which would create 43 billion shares outstanding.
“The current shares outstanding are 426 million, and we are trying to get the authorized share count to 50 billion. That doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total maximum shares to be,” Lee said.
Lee is describing the unit bias problem. In finance, unit bias is the psychological tendency for investors to prioritize the number of shares or tokens owned over their return on investment, risk-to-reward ratio, or other critical metrics of evaluating an investment.
Reactions to Lee’s proposal on X were overwhelmingly negative, with several users arguing that raising the authorized share limit is a dilutive move.
“Tom, this looks fishy and ridiculous to authorize a higher share count because the stock might go to $500. You can do this next year when it isn’t in the gutter,” a user wrote in response.
Related: BitMine locks up $1B in Ether as big corporates stake ETH for yield
BitMine buys another $98 million in ETH, as stash crosses 4 million
BitMine bought 32,938 ETH on Tuesday, valued at over $102 million using prices at the time of this writing.
The company’s treasury crossed 4 million ETH, valued at over $12 billion, in December, as it also began staking ETH to earn yield.
Staking in crypto refers to the process of validators locking up tokens to secure a proof-of-stake blockchain, allowing them to earn yield paid in the staked token.
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