Cathie Wood buys shares in Ethereum treasury company BitMine: Why it matters

Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management has purchased $182 million in shares of BitMine Immersion. The former Bitcoin mining company recently started accumulating Ether, while its board has been chaired by "crypto prophet" Tom Lee, who sees a "ChatGPT moment for crypto."

Ark Investment Management purchased 4.77 million shares of BitMine for $182 million, the Bitcoin miner announced yesterday, July 22. It plans to use the proceeds to buy more Ether.

Investors reacted positively to the news, with BitMine shares adding nearly 2% yesterday and about 4% in trading this morning as of this writing. 

That Cathie Wood's has invested in BitMine reflects growing confidence that Ethereum and Ether, long in the shadow of Bitcoin, are emerging as a "financial building block," featuring steady returns, real-world utility, and rising demand from institutions, commented Bloomberg.

BitMine in late June announced a strategy to accumulate Ether, like Strategy does with Bitcoin. Whereas Strategy has purchased 3% of all Bitcoin for its treasury for about $72 billion, BitMine aims to acquire 5% of Ether. The market capitalization of Ether stands at $441.9 billion.  

Recently, BitMine announced Tom Lee, Fundstrat's head of research, known for his "prescient Bitcoin price forecasts," as chair of its board. Ether may be on the verge of a breakout as institutions begin to realize the Ethereum blockchain's potential "in the same way Silicon Valley embraced AI," Lee told by CoinDeskTV in an interview. "Stablecoins have created the 'ChatGPT moment' for crypto," as the asset class, Lee argues, has demonstrated a simple, viral use case as an alternative for payments.  

Bloomberg writes that both Lee and Wood have championed crypto as a pillar of the next financial system, arguing that Ethereum, in particular, is evolving into core infrastructure for payments, tokenized assets, and decentralized finance.

Other BitMine investors include billionaire Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, which owns a stake of about 9%, Bloomberg notes. This is seen as signaling broader interest among long-standing crypto proponents in Ether’s growing role in institutional portfolios.

The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.