Billionaire venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has made a significant move into the cryptocurrency space, acquiring a 9.1% stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies. This crypto infrastructure firm is notably led by Tom Lee, the founder and CIO of Fundstrat Global Advisors. The acquisition, revealed through a recent SEC filing, signals Thiel’s expanding crypto investments and confidence in firms that are building substantial digital asset treasuries.
Thiel’s Strategic Crypto Play
Peter Thiel’s investment encompasses 5,094,000 shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies, over which he holds shared voting and dispositive power. This move positions Thiel among a growing number of institutional investors who are targeting crypto-native companies not solely for their mining operations, but for their increasingly prominent role as major holders of digital assets on their balance sheets.
His involvement comes at a time when Thiel, along with other tech billionaires, has reportedly established Erebor, a new bank aiming to serve tech-focused sectors including artificial intelligence, crypto, manufacturing, and defence—filling a void left by the closure of Silicon Valley Bank.
BitMine Immersion’s Ethereum Strategy
BitMine Immersion Technologies has strategically positioned itself as a leading Ethereum treasury firm. Just recently, on July 14, the company disclosed that its Ethereum (ETH) holdings had exceeded an impressive 163,000 ETH, valued at approximately $500 million. This marks a substantial increase, more than doubling the $250 million it raised in a private placement just five days prior on July 9.
BitMine’s approach mirrors the successful “Bitcoin playbook” pioneered by MicroStrategy, now rebranded as Strategy, which has amassed over 600,000 BTC and redefined how public companies can integrate crypto as a balance sheet asset. By building a large ETH treasury, BitMine aims to not only enhance shareholder value through potential appreciation of its Ethereum holdings but also strengthen the broader Ethereum ecosystem by increasing its stake in the network through mechanisms like staking and capital markets activities.
The company’s goal is to increase ETH held per share and benefit from what Tom Lee describes as a “Wall Street put” for Ethereum, similar to MicroStrategy’s “sovereign put” for Bitcoin.
