Tom Lee, chairman of Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine, has asked shareholders to approve a proposal to increase the company’s authorized shares to 50 billion. This “dramatic” increase in the share count, which is currently at 50 million, is aimed at keeping the BMNR stock attractive for retail investors.
Why BitMine Authorized Shares Need To Increase: Tom Lee
In a recent YouTube message, Lee urged shareholders to support the motion to increase the number of BitMine shares significantly. According to the chairman, this increase would most importantly address the potential need for future share splits as BMNR’s price tracks the price of Ethereum.
Using the Ethereum/Bitcoin ratio, Lee postulated various potential future valuations for the price of Ether. The BitMine Chairman’s model shows that the ETH price could reach $250,000 if Bitcoin surges to $1,000,000, especially as tokenization continues to draw institutional attention to the Ethereum blockchain.
In the event that Ethereum reaches a valuation of $250,000, Lee’s model puts the BitMine stock at an implied price of about $5,000 per share, a price considered too high for 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 in the YouTube message.
This argument is based on the unit bias problem, a psychological concept where buyers lean more toward buying a whole unit of an asset instead of a fractional quantity. Due to this cognitive bias, investors are enticed more by numerous units of “cheap” stocks rather than owning fractional units of stocks with better underlying value or ROI (return on investment) potential.
Source: BitMine/YouTube
Furthermore, Lee explained that if ETH hits $250,000, BitMine would have to initiate a 100:1 stock split to maintain a share price of $25. The chairman said this share split would create 43 billion shares outstanding.
Lee noted:
The current shares outstanding are 426 million, and we are trying to get the authorized share count to 50 billion. That doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total maximum shares to be.
The BitMine chairman also highlighted capital market activities and opportunistic acquisitions as other reasons why the Ethereum treasury firm needs to increase its authorized share count to 50 billion. The shareholders’ deadline to vote on the proposal is January 14, 2026.
After shifting its focus from Bitcoin mining to Ethereum treasury in 2025, BitMine has gone on to become the largest corporate holder of Ether. The BMNR stock closed the day at a valuation of $31.19, reflecting an almost 15% gain on Friday.
Ethereum Price At A Glance
As of this writing, the price of ETH stands at around $3,110, reflecting an over 3% jump in the past 24 hours.
The price of ETH on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images, chart from TradingView
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