Ethereum Becomes the New Bet for Silicon Valley Billionaires

In July 2025, the cryptocurrency market was shaken. A regulatory document revealed that an entity under a well-known investor quietly acquired 9.1% of the shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies, becoming the largest investor in this Ethereum-holding company. After the news was announced, BitMine's stock price soared, reaching a maximum intraday increase of 29.3%.

The discussion is heating up on social media: Has this investment tycoon shifted from Bitcoin to Ethereum? Is he planning to follow in MicroStrategy's footsteps?

The market's turmoil is not without reason. Just a year ago, this investor openly questioned the prospects of Bitcoin: "Now that there is an ETF, who else will come to buy Bitcoin? When institutional investors have already entered the market, who can drive the next bull market?" From Bitcoin to heavily investing in Ether, what exactly is this Silicon Valley tycoon planning?

The Ambitious Goals Behind Ethereum Holdings

BitMine's goal is clear: to become the MicroStrategy of Ethereum. On July 14, 2025, BitMine held $500 million worth of Ether (163,142 ETH). Just three days later, this number doubled to $1 billion, approximately 300,657 ETH. Even in the rapidly changing world of cryptocurrency, this accumulation speed is astonishing.

However, this investor's vision is clearly not limited to corporate asset reserves. In 2023, his investment fund has already invested 200 million USD to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum, with each accounting for half. This allocation itself conveys a message: Ethereum has now caught up with Bitcoin.

In addition to the important layout of BitMine, this investor has quietly begun investments in the Ethereum ecosystem:

• Trading Infrastructure: Invested in a trading platform in 2021 and served as a senior advisor.
• Compliance Infrastructure: Invest in regulated stablecoin issuers in 2024, and continue to increase investment in 2025, participating in projects aimed at becoming leaders in the stablecoin space.
• DeFi Infrastructure: Leading investment in on-chain derivatives projects in June 2025.
• Layer-2 Scaling: Investment in scaling solutions. When mainnet transaction fees are high, Layer-2 becomes key to making DeFi truly usable.

Bitcoin is seen as digital gold, while Ethereum is considered an emerging financial market. A knowledgeable source revealed: "If it's just for store of value, buying Bitcoin is enough. But if you want to take control of the financial infrastructure of the future, you need Ethereum."

This judgment has its basis. When Bitcoin was still debating its store of value and payment functions, Ethereum had already become:

• The main battlefield of DeFi (with locked value exceeding 100 billion USD)
• The preferred platform for stablecoins (main stablecoins circulate on Ethereum)
• The underlying layer of asset tokenization

More importantly, Ethereum can generate returns, which Bitcoin cannot do. BitMine's Ethereum reserve strategy is precisely aimed at this, allowing assets to generate cash flow.

This investor's ambitions go far beyond this. The trading platform he supports secretly submitted an IPO application, participated in the creation of a bank specifically serving cryptocurrency enterprises (planning to hold stablecoins), and gained control over industry discourse through the acquisition of media platforms. The picture is gradually becoming clear: he is no longer satisfied with merely holding assets, but aims to control the channels of asset flow.

His investment fund's portfolio in the blockchain sector is gradually increasing its proportion of the Ethereum ecosystem. If 2014-2022 was his Bitcoin era, focusing on value storage and ideological narratives, then after 2023, he officially enters the Ethereum era, dedicated to building practical financial infrastructure.

Bitcoin may have won the battle on the ideological level, but Ethereum is likely to prevail in practical applications. When central bank digital currencies, corporate stablecoins, and tokenized securities become a reality, they will likely all operate on Ethereum.

By diversifying the ownership of BitMine shares through various entities, this investor is not just investing, but also preparing for future control. If BitMine becomes the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, he essentially becomes a shadow central bank in the Ethereum ecosystem. From early payment innovations to Bitcoin, and then to Ethereum, his dream of a financial empire has remained consistent, only the tools have continually evolved.

Early Layout: Started Accumulating When Bitcoin Was $1000

When Bitcoin was hovering around $1,000, this investor's fund had already begun to accumulate positions. According to insiders, the initial investment reached tens of millions of dollars, which was considered quite aggressive among institutional investors at the time.

But his ambitions did not stop there. In 2013, he invested in the company that later developed EOS. Although EOS ultimately failed to shake Ethereum's position, this investment revealed his true intentions: he was not just pursuing Bitcoin, but was looking for the next Bitcoin.

His layout path is quite intriguing:

• Mining end: Investing in BitMine in 2025 is just the latest move. As early as 2018, it participated in the financing of a certain mining company.
• Trading platform: A former early investor in a well-known exchange before investing in the aforementioned trading platform.
• Infrastructure: In 2021, when the market was enthusiastic about DeFi tokens, his fund quietly invested in projects that provide infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

His understanding of Bitcoin goes far beyond just being digital gold. In April 2021, during a conversation with a former Secretary of State, he raised the point that Bitcoin could be used by certain countries to undermine the status of the US dollar.

This statement has caused a huge uproar in the crypto community. Supporters accuse him of betrayal, while opponents believe he is spreading conspiracy theories. However, when placed within the context of his overall ideological framework, the logic becomes clear: in his view, Bitcoin is not only an investment asset but also a tool of geopolitics, capable of taking the initiative in the new financial wars.

Interestingly, just a year later, he changed his tune at a Bitcoin conference, describing it as a revolutionary weapon against the traditional financial system. He even listed an "enemies list": including certain Wall Street bigwigs and bankers.

Facing conservatives, he talks about national security. Facing the crypto community, he talks about a freedom revolution. What remains unchanged is the core goal: to promote a new order independent of the traditional financial system. This precisely showcases his core characteristic: adept at using narrative as a weapon.

His investment strategy has been quite successful: he timely liquidated his positions before the crypto winter in 2022, making a profit of 1.8 billion USD; in 2023, when Bitcoin dropped to 30,000 USD, he acted again and bought 100 million USD. This can be considered a textbook case of high selling and low buying.

It is worth noting that in July 2024, when the Bitcoin ETF is launched and institutional funds are pouring in, he publicly stated that he is uncertain whether Bitcoin will see significant gains from this point. In his view, the real weapon will never be an ETF that everyone can buy.

Unfulfilled Currency Dreams

Opening his investment portfolio, a clear pattern emerges: he hardly invests in specific applications, does not engage in GameFi, and only has a superficial interest in NFTs. What he is truly interested in are: Layer 2 scaling solutions, compliance infrastructure, derivatives protocols, and stablecoin networks. In his view, protocols are more important than products.

Back in 1998, when he was 23 years old and co-founded a payment company with his partner, what was their initial vision? It was not to create a payment tool, but to invent a completely new form of currency.

Ten years before the birth of Bitcoin, he was already thinking about how to disrupt the existing monetary system. They even developed a PalmPilot application in the early days that could transmit digital cash via infrared. Ultimately, due to regulatory pressure, they had to transform into a traditional payment company.

In 2002, the company was acquired for $1.5 billion. The first thing he did after cashing out was to establish an investment firm to systematically search for the next currency revolution opportunity. He waited for 12 years.

In 2014, when he first seriously studied Bitcoin, what he saw was not electronic cash, but his unfulfilled dream. In 2015, he summarized the current world as follows: "We live in a world where Bitcoin is unregulated and atoms are regulated." The implication is that in the digital world, you can build anything, including an entirely new financial system.

In his writings, he repeatedly emphasizes: competition is the game of losers, only monopoly can bring excess profits. Early experiences taught him that establishing a financial monopoly in the traditional world is nearly impossible. Regulation will kill you, and big banks will besiege you. However, cryptocurrency has changed the rules of the game.

How to establish a monopoly in a decentralized world? The answer is: control the underlying infrastructure. When everyone is building on Ethereum, owning Ether is equivalent to collecting rent. When all transactions require stablecoins, controlling stablecoin protocols is equivalent to printing money. When regulation finally arrives, having a compliance license is equivalent to holding the ticket to entry.

He even funded the key figures of the revolution. In 2014, his scholarship program gave $100,000 to the 19-year-old founder of Ethereum, which led him to decide to drop out of university and develop Ethereum full-time. In a sense, he not only invested in the infrastructure but also in the people who build the infrastructure.

This explains why he is simultaneously laying out traditional banks (obtaining traditional licenses) and DeFi protocols (decentralized finance); regardless of which path he takes in the future, he is a winner. A deeper reason may be: in his view, cryptocurrency is not an upgraded version of payment systems, but rather what it should have become—a truly free global financial system, not controlled by any government.

The Crypto Empire Has Taken Shape

By 2025, he is no longer satisfied with being a passive holder. Through multiple entities, he is building a complete crypto financial empire.

Why is he so aggressive when traditional financial giants are still waiting? The answer may lie in his words from 2015: "We live in a world where bits are unregulated and atoms are regulated."

For him, cryptocurrency is not just a financial revolution, but the ultimate tool for building an unregulated digital world. Now is the time to place your bets.

After all, as his friend said: "The best adventure is a calculated adventure." In this ultimate adventure of cryptocurrency, his calculations have just begun.