BitMine chairman Tom Lee is urging shareholders to approve a proposal to raise the company’s authorized share count from 50 million to 50 billion, arguing the move is needed to allow for future stock splits if Ether’s price significantly appreciates.
Lee said the share price of BitMine, a publicly listed Ether treasury company, closely tracks the performance of Ether (ETH). He told investors he modeled potential valuations using the ETH/Bitcoin ratio and projected that ETH could reach $250,000 if Bitcoin climbs to $1 million.
Under that scenario, Lee estimated BitMine’s shares would trade at an implied price of about $5,000 each, a level he described as out of reach for many retail investors. He argued that keeping the stock affordable would likely require a major stock split.
“Not everybody wants a stock price at $500, $1,500, or $5,000. Most people want shares to stay at around $25,” Lee said. He added that if ETH hit $250,000, BitMine would need to carry out a 100:1 stock split to keep its share price near $25, resulting in roughly 43 billion shares outstanding.
BitMine currently has 426 million shares outstanding. Lee stressed that the proposal concerns the ceiling on how many shares the company is legally allowed to issue, rather than an immediate plan to issue tens of billions of new shares.
“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,” he said.
Lee framed the plan as a response to what he called “unit bias” in finance — the tendency of investors to focus on owning a larger number of units, such as shares or tokens, rather than on returns, risk, or other fundamentals.
Reaction on social platform X was largely critical. Several users argued that lifting the authorized share limit risks future dilution of existing shareholders.
“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,” one user wrote.
BitMine shifted from operating as a Bitcoin mining and holding company to an Ether-focused treasury strategy in 2025, though it still maintains some Bitcoin activities.
Separately, BitMine disclosed that it purchased 32,938 ETH on Tuesday, worth more than $102 million at prices at the time of the transaction. The company’s Ether holdings surpassed 4 million ETH in December, valued at over $12 billion then, and it has also started staking part of its holdings to earn yield.
In proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum, staking involves validators locking up tokens to help secure the network in exchange for rewards paid in the same token.