Michael Saylor was a pioneer.
Whatever one's feeling on the guy, he is a visionary. His view of Bitcoin was ahead of the curve, at least as it pertains to the potential on a company's balance sheet. The approach employed by Microstrategy for financing the acquisition of more BTC is now a model followed by others.
Over the last year, the number of Bitcoin Treasury firms has jumped.
This has transferred into other coins and tokens. At present, Ethereum is the next area of focus. A number of companies have adopted Saylor's approach using the second leading crypto-asset as its pathway.
Leading this charge is Tom Lee. He is a noted analyst that appeared on networks such as CNBC. For years, he was a Bitcoin bull. This now applies to Ethereum.
Is Tom Lee Becoming The Michael Saylor Of Ethereum
There are 120 million ETH on the market according to Coingecko. This has the market cap at $530 billion, on a price of just shy of $4,400 per coin.
Tom Lee is chairman of Bitmine. The company has transformed itself from a Bitcoin mining company into the largest shareholder of ETH. This puts it in prime position to leverage all the development around the Ethereum network.
Lee's theory is that Ethereum is going to be the favored destination for institutions. With stablecoins already emerging and real world assets on the horizon, major financial firms are already starting to build there.
Using the Saylor model for acquiring BTC, Lee is financing the acquisition of ETH at a breathtaking pace.
How rapid is his acquisition?
BitMine Immersion Technologies’ Ethereum holdings were valued at nearly $5 billion on Monday, as the treasury firm said that it now owns 1% of the asset’s circulating supply.
The Las Vegas-based firm, chaired by Fundstrat co-founder and managing partner Tom Lee, held 1.15 million Ethereum on Monday, a 317,000 ETH increase compared to the week prior, according to a press release. Last week, BitMine disclosed a 208,000 ETH purchase.
This is two months worth of buying. That means some major funds were flowing into the coin.
He isn't alone though. In fact, to be the top ETH holder, he will have to keep the buying.
Because Joe Lubin’s SharpLink (SBET) has been stacking its own ETH trove, expected to disclose 600,000 ETH ($2.5B) in holdings today after a major buying spree.
For ETH holders, from a market perspective, there is good news on the horizon. The buying will continue. Lee set a large target, 5% of the total supply.
In a statement, Lee said that the company has operated at “lightning speed” in pursuit of its main goal: owning 5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. That would equate to six million Ethereum worth $25.6 billion, based on current prices, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko.
He is having to look at a 5x on his holdings. We can presume, if the buying starts to spread to other firms, Lee will have to lay out more than $25 billion to get to that level.
Financial Pioneers
We tend to remember pioneers.
Steve Jobs will go down in history for his leading Apple into the iPhone age. Bill Gates of Microsoft changed the world forever. Elon Musk is synonymous with EVs and, perhaps, autonomy. JD Rockefeller created Standard Oil, which became the fuel for the transportation sector.
Will Michael Saylor ever be thought in that light? Probably not. That said, he has equal impact on the Bitcoin world as the others.
Lee could be following suit with Ethereum.
Of course, he is not original in this since he is copying the idea from Saylor. Lubin is approaching things from a similar perspective. We will see if Lee gets the reputation with Ethereum that Saylor got with Bitcoin.
What is ironic is the passing of the torch. Saylor, in my view, is now more known for Bitcoin that Satoshi. With Ethereum, it was always Vitalik Buterin that "face" of the ecosystem.
Could Lee wrestle this away like Saylor did from Satoshi? Lee tends to get more media than Buterin, making it possible. Being the top holder of Ethereum, especially if the network does become the default for institutions tokenization could put Lee in a power position with the media.
Some might not consider these guys to be pioneers yet they are leading the way in what could become a remaking of the entire financial system. This could be as impactful as some of the breakthroughs I mentioned above.