The largest Ethereum Treasury today, Bitmine, could well become one of the 800 most profitable companies in the United States, according to this member of the Ethereum Foundation. A strategy championed by its CEO, Tom Lee, often described as “crazy,” but which could well prove to be very profitable.
Tom Lee’s “crazy theory” about Ethereum
Among the current Ethereum Treasuries, Bitmine is the undisputed leader with its stock of over 4 million ETH, estimated to be worth over $12 billion. This is enough to compare its CEO, Tom Lee, to a kind of visionary similar to Michael Saylor—founder of Strategy—in a version dedicated to Ether.
This relentless accumulation over the last five months raises questions about its relevance, given that the Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT) sector is clearly losing momentum at the end of the year, to the point where some projects have decided to throw in the towel.
This prompted Ethereum Foundation member Abbas Khan to revisit what he calls the “silly theory” of his CEO, Tom Lee, about Ethereum, in a post on the X network. It was an ironic way of pointing out his obvious interest in Bitmine, a company that is “rewriting the rules of treasury management.”
Most crypto treasuries are entirely dependent on price appreciation and generate no native cash flow, forcing them to sell or leverage debt to obtain liquidity. Ethereum Treasuries hold a productive asset that generates a native yield capable of financing their operations without having to sell the underlying ETH.
Abbas Khan
Bitmine on track to become one of the 800 most profitable companies in the United States?
At the heart of his analysis is “Tom Lee’s ridiculous theory that Ethereum can earn Bitmine hundreds of millions of dollars simply by staking its ETH.”
According to a quick calculation by Abbas Khan, this could represent an estimated annual gain of more than $364 million (approximately 122,000 ETH). By way of comparison, Strategy has an estimated cumulative revenue of $475 million over the last 12 rolling months.
This activity is all the more profitable as Bitmine seems to be focusing on developing a native staking solution, while at the same time becoming “a leading validator operator” directly associated with “Ethereum’s security budget.”
According to Tom Lee, the implementation of this staking activity should make Bitmine “one of the 800 most profitable companies in the United States” by capitalizing on ETH-denominated cash flows each year.
It sounds pretty stupid, actually.
Abbas Khan
At the same time, Tom Lee should take the time to review his very optimistic forecasts for the price of Bitcoin, aligning himself a little more with the head of crypto-asset strategy at his Fundstrat fund, Sean Farrell, so as not to lose all credibility by announcing both a BTC price of $200,000 and $60,000 next January.
