Tom Lee, Chairman of ether Treasury company BitMine Immersion (BMNR), called on shareholders to approve a board proposal for a sharp increase in the company’s authorized share count.
In an early-year announcement, Lee said the proposal to increase the company’s number of shares to 50 billion from 500 million is not a precursor to a move to “dilute” shareholders.
“[This]This does not mean that we will issue 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total maximum shares to be,” Lee said.
Acknowledging that a higher number of shares makes it easier to enable the company to raise capital, Lee recalled that it also allows BitMine to pursue opportunistic deals and — most importantly, according to Lee — accommodate future stock splits.
Lee claimed that BitMine’s share price has increasingly followed ether since the company pivoted to make ETH its primary treasury asset last year. 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 the shares “available” to the public.
Lee framed the proposal in 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 that he has personally accumulated ether, aligning his macro view with BitMine’s financial strategy.
Lee reminded shareholders that they have until January 14 to vote on the proposal, with BitMine’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for January 15 in Las Vegas.
