August 27, 2025

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Who is Tom Lee? Fundstrat, Bitmine, Ethereum

Tom Lee is to Ethereum what Michael Saylor is to Bitcoin. With Bitmine now the #2 crypto company, we look into the maverick Chairman behind the scenes
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    Ethereum finally has its own Michael Saylor. 

    Bitmine, the leading ETH treasury company, is nearing $10 billion in Ethereum just a few months after it started buying and staking the world’s #2 digital asset. 

    Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) may seem a very long way off with its $71 billion stockpile of Bitcoin but the rate at which Bitmine is acquiring Ethereum is making Saylor’s lead look slightly less mighty. 

    There is still a long way to go. Bitmine passed MARA holdings several weeks ago to become the second largest holder of crypto as a treasury asset but if Bitmine really wants to be seen in the same category as Strategy, there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of conviction required. 

    But who is behind it all? 

    Tom Lee is becoming a household name in the world of crypto. He has a background and long career in traditional finance before pivoting in the last few years into crypto. 

    In this article, we provide some background to one of crypto’s most talked-about figures.

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    Bitmine on Arkham

    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.

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    Born into a Korean family in Michigan, Tom Lee is the third of four children. His father was a psychiatrist and his mother was a homemaker turned Subway franchise owner. 

    Despite being from a relatively unassuming background, Tom Lee has over the years earned himself the title of “permabull”.

    In 2002, Lee made a name and a reputation which has stood the test of time. Working for J.P. Morgan, Lee's analysis of Nextel - a wireless service operator that no longer exists - was met with public criticism from Nextel itself. T open disagreement between a all Street analyst and a publicly traded company was unusual and garnered significant attention f The dispute was featured in a Wall Street Journal article titled, "Unhappy Firm Bites Back: Nextel Says, Analyze This," which detailed the public nature of the feud.

    Using his fame, the Fundstrat co-founder has been making very public, very bold predictions for several years now. Most famously, in 2020, Lee correctly predicted that the US stock market would rebound after the 2020 stock market crash.

    In 2017, Tom Lee started making predictions about the price of Bitcoin, some of which came true.

    However, many of Lee’s predictions have been mistimed. In 2018, Lee predicted that the Bitcoin price would hit $125,000 by 2022. He was right, just a few years too early.

    More recently, Lee has predicted a year-end Ethereum price of $12,000. He is very bullish on ETH, and he has brought that energy wholeheartedly into Bitmine’s ETH treasury strategy.

    Bitmine’s ‘Alchemy of 5%’ strategy will see the company aim to 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.

    So far, the 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.

    Finn Grant

    Finn is a writer, formerly of The Daily Telegraph and New Scientist magazine. Prior to his career in journalism, he founded a successful blogging agency. He has been an active participant in crypto markets since 2020. In his spare time, Finn is writing a science fiction novel.

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    Arkham
    The Arkham Research Team comprises analysts and engineers who worked at Tesla, Meta, and Apple, alongside alumni from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, UC Berkeley, and other institutions.
    Information provided herein is for general educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute investment or other advice on financial products. Such information is not, and should not be read as, an offer or recommendation to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any particular digital asset or to use any particular investment strategy. Arkham makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability, or validity of any information on this website and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. Digital assets, including stablecoins and NFTs, are subject to market volatility, involve a high degree of risk, can lose value, and can even become worthless; additionally, digital assets are not covered by insurance against potential losses and are not subject to FDIC or SIPC protections. Historical returns are not indicative of future returns.