- Tom Lee believes Ethereum could hit $30K if companies mimic MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury strategy using equity and debt to accumulate ETH.
- Firms like BitMine, SharpLink, and Bit Digital have already scooped up over 682,000 ETH, with billions more lined up to pour in.
- A reflexive loop between rising share prices and ETH accumulation could rapidly accelerate ETH’s price discovery.
Tom Lee went all in yesterday—six posts deep on X—laying out why Ethereum (yep, ETH) could hit $30,000 if companies start treating it like MicroStrategy treated Bitcoin. He basically says, hey, the price doesn’t need wild speculation to get there… just cold, balance-sheet math.
His theory? MicroStrategy’s crazy 35x stock run—from $13 to $455 since August 2020—wasn’t all about Bitcoin’s rise. Sure, BTC climbed from $11K to $118K in that stretch, but according to Lee, only a third of that gain came from Bitcoin itself. The rest? It was what he calls “treasury strategy”—taking on debt, issuing stock, and stacking BTC faster than the price was moving.
ETH Has the Volatility Edge
Lee argues ETH might be even better suited for that playbook. He points to three moves: issuing new shares above net asset value to scoop up more ETH, using token volatility to bring down borrowing costs, and packaging it all neatly with convertibles or preferred shares to limit shareholder dilution. And since Ethereum is still more volatile than Bitcoin (in a good way, here), it could make those financial gymnastics even cheaper to pull off.
Oh, and Lee didn’t just theorize. He posted a chart too—showing that BitMine Immersion Technologies, which he chairs, bought more ETH in its first week ($1B worth!) than MicroStrategy bought in its first week of Bitcoin buying back in 2020. That’s a flex.
ETH Treasuries Are Already Stacking Fast
Let’s talk numbers. BitMine, per a July 17 filing, now holds over 300,000 ETH—just north of $1B at the time. They recently closed a $250M private placement and are gunning to acquire 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. That’s… not small.
Then there’s SharpLink Gaming. Chaired by ETH co-founder Joseph Lubin, they upped their SEC shelf registration from $1B to $6B. The goal? More ETH. Between July 7–11, they raised $413M and already have 280,706 ETH staked and sitting tight.
And rounding out the trio, Bit Digital. They dumped 280 BTC and sold $172M in stock, now holding 100,603 ETH. CEO Sam Tabar says they wanna be the ETH treasury king. Period.
Altogether, the three companies now control about 682,000 ETH. That’s roughly 0.5% of the entire circulating supply—and all three have the green light to keep printing equity or debt to grab more.
Reflexive Loops and Ridiculous Numbers
Lee’s whole point is that this strategy creates a feedback loop: higher share prices = cheaper capital = more ETH per share = even more demand. It speeds up price discovery, he says. And it compresses time.
Crypto analyst DCInvestor chimed in, summing it up like this: “Tom Lee basically calling for like $30-80K ETH. And some of you think we are gonna stop $1-2K after last cycle’s all-time high.”
Right now, ETH trades around $3,600. If it jumped to $30K, that’s an 8x move—ironically, about the same as Bitcoin’s run from MicroStrategy’s first buy to BTC’s 2021 peak. The difference? MSTR took years. ETH treasuries are already moving billions—in weeks.
So yeah. It’s early. But if this playbook repeats, the numbers might not be as wild as they sound.
