Peter Thiel Buys into Tom Lee’s Ether Company: Shares See Significant Surge Post Investment
The shares of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a leading player in the ethereum mining sector, experienced significant growth on Wednesday following the disclosure of tech magnate Peter Thiel’s 9% equity stake in the company through his venture capital firm, Founders Fund.
The stock witnessed a peak increase of 12%, although it subsequently rallied as high as 20%. Parallel gains were observed among companies with comparable focus, albeit they have since retreated from their peaks. SharpLink Gaming, which has also embarked on an ethereum treasury strategy and is chaired by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, registered a 10% rise. Bit Digital, having recently shifted its focus from bitcoin mining to ethereum treasury and staking initiatives, saw a 7% increase.
In a strategic move, Bitmine, initially a bitcoin mining company, implemented a purchasing strategy centered around ether and appointed Tom Lee, market strategist at Fundstrat, as the chairman of its board. This appointment was intended to position Bitmine as the MicroStrategy of ethereum, a moniker reflecting the exponential growth in the stock since then, surpassing 900%.
The recent surge of interest in Ethereum and related assets can be attributed to Robinhood’s announcement enabling trading of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs across Europe, as well as the growing popularity of stablecoins throughout June. This period saw significant developments such as Circle’s highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) and ongoing progress in Congress on the Senate’s proposed stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act.
In tandem with these market events, the price of ether itself continued its upward trajectory, rising over 4% on Wednesday. Over the past three months, the coin has nearly doubled in value.
Thiel’s investment portfolio includes notable ventures such as co-founding PayPal, Palantir, and an early investment in Facebook. Founders Fund was also an investor in Tagomi, the crypto brokerage acquired by Coinbase in 2020, and Polymarket, the prediction market built on Ethereum.
