Chairman Tom Lee makes case for major share count increase

Tom Lee, chairman of ether ETH$3,130.02 treasury firm BitMine Immersion (BMNR), urged shareholders to approve a board proposal for a sharp increase in the company’s authorized share count.

In a start-of-the-year message, Lee said the proposal to boost the company’s number of shares to 50 billion from 500 million is not a precursor to a move to “dilute” shareholders.

“[This]t doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total max shares to be,” Lee said.

Acknowledging that a higher share count does make it easier to enable the company to raise capital, Lee reminded that it also allows BitMine to pursue opportunistic dealmaking and — most importantly, according to Lee — accommodate future share splits.

Lee argued that BitMine’s share price has increasingly tracked ether since the company pivoted last year to make ETH its primary treasury asset. If ether’s price rises over the years as he expects — as high as $250,000 if bitcoin reaches $1 million — splits will be necessary to keep shares “accessible” to the public.

Lee framed the proposal within a broader thesis that Ethereum will play a central role in Wall Street’s push toward tokenized financial markets, pointing to public comments by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink about blockchain-based market infrastructure. Lee has separately said he has been accumulating ether personally, aligning his macro view with BitMine’s treasury strategy.

Lee reminded shareholders that they have until Jan. 14 to vote on the proposal, with BitMine’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for Jan. 15 in Las Vegas.