Share this article
Tom Lee’s Bitmine Aims to Hold 5% of ETH: ‘Game On,’ Says Lubin, SharpLink's Chairman
SharpLink Gaming and Bitmine Immersion Technologies now hold 500K+ ETH, fueling a treasury arms race that's redefining how public companies manage crypto on their balance sheets.
Updated Jul 21, 2025, 2:22 p.m. Published Jul 20, 2025, 6:28 p.m.
What to know:
- SharpLink Gaming and Bitmine Immersion Technologies have each amassed over 280,000 ETH, competing for leadership in the ETH treasury space.
- Bitmine, chaired by Tom Lee, aims to hold 5% of all ETH and position itself as an Ethereum-era central bank.
- Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin weighed in on the rivalry on Saturday, calling it both a contest and a collaboration to accelerate financial decentralization.
Two unlikely companies — SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) — are redefining what it means to be an ETH-first corporation. Together, they’ve acquired more ETH than the Ethereum Foundation itself, propelling a growing trend among public firms treating ETH not as a speculative asset, but as a core part of their balance sheets.
SharpLink Gaming, a Minneapolis-based fan engagement and iGaming performance firm, has emerged as one of the largest ETH corporate holders in the world. The company currently holds 280,706 ETH, a position currently worth just over $1 billion. SharpLink raised over $400 million through at-the-market (ATM) equity offerings to fund its accumulation strategy.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Rather than sitting idle, the ETH is staked for yield. SharpLink also publishes an “ETH-per-share” metric, positioning itself as a transparent bridge between regulated public equity markets and the decentralized finance ecosystem.
But the title of largest ETH corporate holder now belongs to Bitmine Immersion Technologies. Chaired by longtime Wall Street strategist and Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, Bitmine has accumulated 300,657 ETH as of today, worth around $1.13 billion. Lee, who also leads Bitmine’s strategic vision, has drawn comparisons between his firm’s strategy and MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook — raising capital, deploying into ETH, and staking for yield.
Bitmine’s approach goes even further, aiming to control up to 5% of ether's total circulating supply. Its operations leverage cash flow from industrial-scale crypto mining and hosting, while using financial instruments like ETH options to deepen its treasury. Backed by notable investors including Peter Thiel, Bitmine hopes to function as an ETH-native reserve institution.
The rivalry burst into the open on Saturday when Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin weighed in on X, calling the contest between SharpLink and Bitmine a mix of “cut-throat one-upmanship” and potential collaboration. “We will both compete, hard,” he wrote, adding that while they might try to out-buy each other stacking ETH, they could also “hold hands and collaboratively explain the paradigm shift to decentralization.” He ended with a challenge: “Game on.”
This corporate arms race appears to be shaping ETH’s market momentum. Over the past 24 hours, ETH has climbed 6.5% to roughly $3,800, extending a seven-day rally of nearly 27%. That price action can, at least in part, be explained by the sheer scale of ETH accumulation underway at SharpLink Gaming and Bitmine Immersion Technologies.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Japan’s Higher Rates Puts Bitcoin in the Crosshairs of a Yen Carry Unwind
A stronger yen typically coincides with de-risking across macro portfolios, and that dynamic could tighten liquidity conditions that recently helped bitcoin rebound from November’s lows.
What to know:
- The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to 0.75% at its December meeting, the highest since 1995, affecting global markets including cryptocurrencies.
- A stronger yen could lead to de-risking in macro portfolios, impacting liquidity conditions that have supported bitcoin's recent recovery.
- Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated a high probability of a rate hike, with officials prepared for further tightening if their economic outlook supports it.
Top Stories
