Wall Street legend Thomas "Tom" Lee released a video on Jan. 2 in which he asked the shareholders of BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) to approve a 100-fold increase in authorized shares ahead of the Jan. 14 deadline.
The company will increase the number of authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion if the shareholders approve the proposal.
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Understanding Bitmine's business model
Bitmine Immersion is a popular crypto company that turned from Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations to building an Ethereum (ETH) treasury company.
The company's pivot toward ETH treasury operations coincided with the appointment of Fundstrat's Tom Lee as the chairman.
Bitmine aims to capitalize on the crypto treasury model initiated by Michael Saylor's Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) that built the world's largest corporate BTC treasury.
The way Strategy aims to acquire 5% of total BTC supply, Bitmine aims to acquire 5% of total ETH supply.
As of Dec. 28, 2025, the company held 4,110,525 ETH, accounting for 3.41% of total ETH supply. In addition, it also held 192 BTC.
Bitmine is the world's largest corporate Ethereum treasury. The company is supported by several institutional investors, including ARK Invest's Cathie Wood , Kraken, and Galaxy Digital (Nasdaq: GLXY).
Share count hike won't dilute value, Lee argues
On Jan. 2, Lee asked Bitmine shareholders to approve the expansion of the number of authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion.
The hike in share count would not dilute the value of the shares, Lee said while addressing the Bitmine shareholders.
The goal of the exercise is capital raising, dealmaking, and potential share splits in the future, he added.
The deadline for shareholders to cast their vote is 11:59 pm ET on Jan. 14, 2026, as the annual meeting is scheduled for Jan. 15 in Las Vegas, he reminded.
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Potential share split 'most important reason' behind latest proposal
Lee explained that Bitmine wants to raise share count because it aims to expand capital market activities in the future, such as at-the-money (ATM) transactions, convertible instruments, or preferred stocks. Acquisitions are also on the table, he added.
Since Bitmine treats ETH as the company's primary treasury asset, its share price also tracks ETH's price, Lee said.
"Ethereum in our view is the future of finance."
So if ETH's price surges as per his expectation, it would require a share split to keep BMNR shares "accessible"to retail traders, he expanded on what he referred to as the "most important reason"behind the proposal to increase share count.
If the shareholders approve the proposal, it doesn't mean Bitmine will issue 50 billion shares, Lee said. Instead, the figure represents the maximum number of total shares possible, he added.
The BMNR stock was trading at $31.03 at press time, up 14% in a day.
While Lee thinks Ether can "easily" soar to $7,000-$9,000 in early 2026, the cryptocurrency was exchanging hands at $3,110.76.
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Trading News & Analysis section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
