Shares of publicly traded Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion Technologies jumped more than 400% on Monday following word that the firm raised $250 million via private placement to build an Ethereum treasury. 

In addition to the raise—which had participation from notable crypto firms like Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Kraken—BitMine added Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee as Chairman of the Board of Directors. 

“This transaction includes the highest quality investors across TradFi and crypto venture capital, properly reflecting the rapid and continued convergence of traditional financial services and crypto,” said Lee in a statement.

The private placement includes the sale of more than 55 million shares of BMNR at a price of $4.50 per share, with net proceeds being used to create the Ethereum treasury.

Why is BitMiner embracing Ethereum? The firm’s announcement highlights “protocol-level activities” on the Ethereum network, with specific mention of DeFi, staking, and stablecoins as differentiating features. 

“Stablecoins have proven to be the ‘ChatGPT’ of crypto, leading to rapid adoption by consumers, merchants and financial services providers,” said Lee, adding that Ethereum is home to most stablecoin payments.

“One of the key performance metrics for BitMine going forward is to increase the value of ETH held per share. This can be achieved by a combination of reinvestment of the company’s cash flows, capital markets activities, and by the change in value of ETH.”

BitMiner joins SharpLink Gaming as publicly traded vehicles that have opted for Ethereum treasuries, breaking from the popular trend of building Bitcoin treasuries. Since developing its treasury strategy, SharpLink has added more than 188,000 ETH worth more than $460 million at today’s prices.

Shares of BitMiner closed at $4.26 on Friday, but have jumped 447% to $23.35 as of Monday morning.

Edited by Andrew Hayward