Bitmine, the crypto treasury firm chaired by Tom Lee, held 5.81 million Ether tokens as of Aug. 10 — 4.8% of the network's 120.7 million token supply — and is still pushing toward a 5% stake. Lee predicts Ether will reach $22,000 within a few years even as the token trades near $1,900, down almost 60% over the past year.
Bitmine, the crypto treasury firm chaired by Tom Lee, has built one of the largest corporate positions in Ether, and its chairman wants more. Bitmine held 5.81 million Ether tokens as of Aug. 10, or 4.8% of the network's 120.7 million token supply, and the company has reiterated its goal of reaching 5%. Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, took the chairman role at Bitmine last year and steered the firm from a Bitcoin miner into Ethereum's largest corporate holder.
Lee's Bitcoin call informs his Ether bet
Lee was one of the few analysts urging investors to buy Bitcoin in 2017, when it traded around $2,600; Bitcoin now trades near $63,000.
He began telling investors to buy Ether in late 2024, when it traded around $3,400. Ether has since fallen to roughly $1,900, down nearly 60% over the past 12 months. Lee nevertheless expects Ether to surge to $22,000 within the next few years and reach $62,000 to $250,000 over the long term.
Stablecoins and AI agents as catalysts
Lee expects Ethereum's role as the leading smart contract blockchain to expand as more stablecoins are minted and more tokenized real-world assets move onto the network. As AI agents increasingly handle economic transactions, he argues, they will need neutral, secure blockchains like Ethereum for identity verification and machine-to-machine payments. Ethereum's market cap of $226 billion remains far smaller than Bitcoin's $1.26 trillion, but Lee expects that gap to narrow once macro headwinds such as interest-rate fears ease.
Spot Ether ETFs, approved two years ago, could draw more investors back into the market as crypto sentiment warms. Motley Fool analyst Leo Sun, who covered Bitmine's disclosure, said he wouldn't buy Ether as aggressively as Bitmine but would accumulate more of it in the current downturn.
Source: The Motley Fool
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