Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine — the company that pivoted from Bitcoin mining to an Ethereum-focused treasury in 2025 and now stands as the largest corporate holder of Ether — is asking shareholders to approve a dramatic expansion of the company’s authorized share count to 50 billion. In a recent YouTube message, Lee urged investors to back the proposal, saying the move is meant to keep BMNR stock accessible to retail buyers as the share price could climb in step with Ether. BitMine’s current authorized share count is reportedly 50 million, and the company says it has 426 million shares outstanding today. Lee emphasized that increasing the authorized ceiling to 50 billion would be a precautionary step — “that doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares,” he said — but would allow room for future corporate actions without needing frequent shareholder approvals. Why such a massive increase? Lee’s pitch rests on a model that links BMNR’s valuation to Ethereum’s performance (using the ETH/BTC ratio). In his scenario, if Bitcoin were to reach $1,000,000, tokenization and institutional demand could push ETH to roughly $250,000. Under that outcome, Lee calculates BitMine stock could imply a per-share price near $5,000 — a level he says would be unappealing to most retail investors. “Not everybody wants a stock price at $500, $1,500, or $5,000. Most people want shares to stay at around $25,” Lee said. His argument invokes the concept of unit bias, the cognitive tendency for investors to prefer buying whole shares of low-priced stocks rather than fractions of high-priced ones, even when the latter may offer better returns. To keep share prices low and retail-friendly if Ether were to surge, BitMine would likely need to split its stock. Lee described a hypothetical 100:1 split if ETH reached $250,000, which he said would result in about 43 billion shares outstanding — hence the need for a much larger authorized share limit. Beyond preparing for stock splits, he also cited capital market flexibility and opportunistic acquisitions as reasons to raise the authorized cap. Shareholders have until January 14, 2026 to vote on the proposal. Market snapshot included in Lee’s announcement: BMNR closed recently at $31.19, up nearly 15% on Friday, while ETH traded at roughly $3,110 — a gain of just over 3% in the past 24 hours. Bottom line: BitMine is seeking broad authority to expand its share base so it can execute splits and corporate moves quickly if Ethereum’s price trajectory — and the company’s implied stock price — makes retail accessibility a pressing issue. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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