Who is Tom Lee?

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Tom Lee’s name has been appearing a lot in the cryptosphere in 2025. The mastermind behind Bitmine’s ETH treasury strategy which has seen them acquire over 1.7m ETH tokens in just a few months, Tom Lee is quickly becoming Ethereum’s version of Michael Saylor. 

Indeed, having overtaken MARA a few weeks ago in total crypto holdings, Bitmine is now the #2 crypto treasury company in the world.

In the past week, Bitmine added over $800m to its reserves - now valued at $8.8 billion - as it tries to catch up with Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) whose BTC holdings are valued at $71 billion. 

But who is the figure behind the aggressive ETH strategy?

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Tom Lee’s Career Timeline

Early 1990s

• Began his finance career at Kidder, Peabody & Company as a research associate and later moved to Oppenheimer & Co.

1997–1999

•  Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney, where he was an Equity Research Analyst in Wireless.

1999–2014

• Joined J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. as Chief US Equity Strategist and Managing Director, leading the firm’s equity research and strategy for 15 years.

2014

• Co-founded Fundstrat Global Advisors, serving as Managing Partner and Head of Research. This move established him as a leading independent market strategist with a special focus on digital assets.

2019–Present

• Appointed Head of Research at FSInsight, an independent research platform, and started serving as a board member for the New York Asian Film Festival.

2020

• Recognized for his early bullish market calls during the pandemic-related market sharp decline, leading to high-profile media coverage and a profile in the Wall Street Journal.

2024

• Founded Fundstrat Capital and became Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager for the firm.

June 2025

• Appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors at BitMine Immersion Technologies. Led BitMine’s pivot from Bitcoin mining to aggressive Ethereum acquisition and staking, positioning it as a potential “MicroStrategy of Ethereum”.

• Launched a $250 million private placement for BitMine to dramatically expand its ETH holdings, aiming to become one of the largest public ETH treasuries.

Tom Lee has a long career as an analyst, financial advisor and entrepreneur. His dual roles at Fundstrat and Bitmine make him well-placed to bridge the divide between the crypto world and the traditional finance world. 

Bitmine’s ‘Alchemy of 5%’ strategy will see the company aim to ultimately acquire 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. The acquired ETH will be staked and the company will receive staking rewards of around 4-5% APR.

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Tom Lee has long been seen as a markets and crypto bull. So far, his ETH strategy seems to be paying off as Bitmine’s share price is up 1000% since the end of June.

Tom Lee and Bitmine are active on Twitter and often post positively about crypto and Ethereum.