Silicon Valley Investment Tycoon Invests in Ethereum, Reviving the Dream of Internet Finance?

In July 2025, a regulatory document caused a stir in the crypto community: a well-known investor's entity quietly acquired a 9.1% stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies, becoming the largest investor in this Ethereum treasury. Once the news broke, BitMine's stock price surged, with an intraday high increase of 29.3%.

There is a heated discussion on social media: has this investor shifted from Bitcoin to Ether? Does this mean they are looking to emulate the strategy of a certain well-known company?

The market is restless for a reason. Just a year ago, this investor openly questioned Bitcoin: "We already have ETFs, I don’t know who else would come to buy. When institutional forces have already entered the arena, who can drive the next wave?" From Bitcoin to heavily investing in Ethereum, what exactly is this Silicon Valley billionaire plotting?

The Strategy Behind Holding $1 Billion in Ether

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

However, this investor's vision goes far beyond that. In 2023, his fund made a key decision: to invest $200 million in Bitcoin and Ether, each accounting for half. This allocation itself sends a signal: Ether has already kept pace with Bitcoin.

In addition to the important layout of BitMine, this investor has already begun to lay out in the Ethereum ecosystem:

Trading Infrastructure: Invested in a certain exchange in 2021 and served as a senior advisor.

Compliance Infrastructure: Invest in regulated stablecoin issuers in 2024, and continue to increase investment in stablecoin projects in 2025.

DeFi Infrastructure: Leading investment in on-chain derivatives projects in June 2025.

Layer-2 Scaling: Investment in scaling solutions. When the mainnet gas fees remain high, Layer-2 is the key to making DeFi truly usable.

Bitcoin is digital gold, and Ethereum is the new financial market. A source close to the investor revealed, "To store value, buying Bitcoin is enough. But to control the future financial infrastructure, you need Ethereum."

This judgment is well-founded. While Bitcoin was still entangled in the store of value vs payment debate, Ethereum had already become: the main battleground for DeFi (with locked value exceeding $100 billion), the preferred platform for stablecoins (with major stablecoins circulating primarily on Ethereum), and the foundational layer for RWA (real-world asset) tokenization.

More importantly, Ethereum can generate interest. This is something Bitcoin cannot do. BitMine's Ethereum vault strategy is precisely aimed at this, allowing assets to generate cash flow.

The investor's ambitions do not stop there: he supports exchanges secretly submitting IPOs, backs the creation of banks specifically serving cryptocurrency enterprises (which plan to hold stablecoins), and seeks to control industry discourse through media platforms. The picture is clear: he is no longer satisfied with merely holding assets, but aims to control the pipelines of asset flow.

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

Bitcoin has won the ideological war, but Ethereum will win in practical applications. When central bank digital currencies, corporate stablecoins, and tokenized securities become a reality, they will all run on Ethereum.

This investor diversifies his holdings in BitMine through various entities, not just investing but also preparing for control. If BitMine becomes the largest corporate holder of Ether, he will effectively become the shadow central bank of the Ethereum ecosystem. From early internet payments to Bitcoin, and then to Ethereum, his dream of a financial empire has never changed; only the tools have continuously evolved.

Start layout when Bitcoin is at $1000

When Bitcoin was still hovering around $1,000, this investor's fund had already begun accumulating positions. According to insiders, the initial investment reached over ten million dollars, which was considered aggressive among institutional investors at the time.

But his ambitions did not stop there. In 2013, he invested in a project that later developed a public blockchain. Although this project ultimately failed to shake Ethereum, this investment revealed his true intentions: what he wanted was not Bitcoin itself, but the next Bitcoin.

What is even more intriguing is his layout path:

Mining Side: Investing in BitMine in 2025 is just the latest move. As early as 2018, it participated in the financing of mining companies.

Trading Platform: An early investor in another trading platform before investing in the latest exchange. Compared to the compliance route of a major exchange, this platform maintains a more crypto-punk style.

Infrastructure: In 2021, when everyone was chasing DeFi tokens, his fund quietly invested in projects that provided 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 put forward the idea that Bitcoin could be a financial weapon for China to weaken the US dollar.

The crypto community is in an uproar. Supporters call him a traitor, while opponents say he is a conspiracy theorist. However, when this statement is placed within the context of his overall ideological framework, the logic becomes clear: Bitcoin is not only an investment asset but also a tool of geopolitical strategy. It has the potential to take the initiative in the new financial wars.

Interestingly, just a year later, he changed his tune at the Bitcoin conference, describing it as a revolutionary weapon against the old guard of finance. He even listed his enemies: a certain well-known investor, the CEO of a large asset management company, and the CEO of a major bank.

Faced with conservatives, he talks about national security. Faced with the crypto community, he talks about the 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: using narrative as a weapon.

The results are remarkable: timely liquidation before the crypto winter in 2022, gaining $1.8 billion; re-entering the market when Bitcoin fell to $30,000 in 2023, purchasing $100 million. A textbook example of high selling and low buying.

Interesting details: In July 2024, when the Bitcoin ETF is launched and institutional funds flood in, he openly expresses uncertainty about whether it will see significant gains from here. The real weapon will never be an ETF that everyone can buy.

Behind every layout is an unfulfilled monetary dream

Looking at this investor's fund portfolio, a clear pattern emerges: almost no investment in DApps, no involvement in GameFi, and only a superficial engagement with NFTs. What he is truly interested in are: Layer 2 scaling solutions, compliance infrastructure, derivatives protocols, and stablecoin networks. His principle is that protocols are superior to products.

Back in 1998, what was the initial vision of the 23-year-old and his partner when they founded the internet payment company? It was not to create a payment tool, but to develop a new form of currency.

Ten years before the birth of Bitcoin, he was already thinking about how to disrupt the monetary system. They even developed an application for PalmPilot 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. After cashing out, his first move was to establish an investment firm to systematically look 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 an unfinished dream. "We live in a world where Bitcoin is unregulated and atoms are regulated," he summarized in 2015. The implication is: in the digital world, you can build anything, including an entirely new financial system.

In his bestselling book, he repeatedly emphasizes: competition is a game for losers, only monopoly can bring excess profits. His early entrepreneurial experiences taught him that establishing financial monopolies in the traditional world is nearly impossible. Regulations will crush you, and big banks will hunt you down. 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 builds on Ethereum, owning Ether is equivalent to collecting rent. When all transactions require stablecoins, controlling stablecoin protocols is akin to printing money. When regulation finally arrives, having a compliance license is equivalent to holding the ticket to entry.

He even funded key figures of this 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 college and develop Ethereum full-time. In a sense, he not only invested in the infrastructure, but also in the people building the infrastructure.

This explains why he is laying out both traditional banks and DeFi protocols at the same time; no matter which path the future takes, he is a winner. The deeper reason may be: in his view, cryptocurrency is not Internet payment 2.0, but what it should have become, a truly free global financial system that is not controlled by any government.

The crypto empire has taken shape

In 2025, he is no longer satisfied with being a passive holder of coins. Through multiple entities, he is building a complete cryptocurrency financial empire.

For him, cryptocurrency is not just a financial revolution, but the ultimate tool for building an unregulated Bitcoin 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.