Silicon Valley Giants Bet Big on Ethereum, Chasing Unfinished Currency Dreams

In July 2025, a regulatory document caused a stir in the crypto world: a related entity of a certain tech tycoon quietly acquired 9.1% of BitMine Immersion Technologies, becoming the largest investor in this Ethereum treasury. Following the news, BitMine's stock price skyrocketed, with an intraday peak increase of 29.3%.

The discussion is buzzing on social media: has this well-known investor shifted from Bitcoin to Ether? Is he planning to follow the strategies of certain companies?

The market's volatility is not without reason. Just a year ago, this investor publicly questioned the prospects of Bitcoin: "We already have ETFs, I don't know who else will come to buy. When institutional forces have already entered the market, who can drive the next wave?" From Bitcoin to heavily investing in Ethereum, what exactly is this Silicon Valley billionaire planning?

The Ambition Behind Holding $1 Billion Worth of Ether

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

But what this investor is focused on goes far beyond another corporate treasury. In 2023, a move by his investment firm revealed his investment landscape: investing $200 million to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum, each accounting for half. This allocation itself is a signal that Ethereum has now matched Bitcoin.

In addition to this heavy blow from BitMine, this investor has quietly 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, continue to increase investment in 2025, and participate in stablecoin projects, aiming to build a payment giant in the stablecoin field.

DeFi Infrastructure: Leading the investment in projects focused on on-chain derivatives 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. An industry insider close to the investor revealed, "It's enough to buy Bitcoin for value storage. 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 battlefield for DeFi (with locked value exceeding $100 billion), the preferred platform for stablecoins (mainstream stablecoins circulate primarily on Ethereum), and the foundational layer for RWA (real-world asset) tokenization.

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

The ambitions of this investor go beyond that: a certain exchange secretly submitted an IPO (June 2025), supports the establishment of a bank dedicated to serving crypto enterprises (plans to hold stablecoins), and aims to control the industry's discourse through media platforms. The picture is clear: he is no longer satisfied with holding assets, but wants to control the channels of asset flow.

The proportion of the Ethereum ecosystem in his investment firm's blockchain portfolio is also gradually rising. If the years 2014-2022 were 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 holds BitMine shares through various entities, not just investing but preparing for control. If BitMine becomes the largest corporate holder of Ether, he effectively becomes the shadow central bank of the Ethereum ecosystem. From early payment innovations to Bitcoin and then to Ethereum, this investor's dream of a financial empire has never changed; only the tools have continuously evolved.

Leading investment funds started accumulating Bitcoin at $1000.

When Bitcoin was still hovering around $1,000, this investor's fund had already begun to build a position. 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 company that later developed a large blockchain project. Although the 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 End: Investing in BitMine in 2025 is just the latest move. As early as 2018, they participated in the financing of a certain mining company.

Trading Platform: Before the previously mentioned exchange, it was an early investor in another trading platform. Compared to the compliance routes of certain exchanges, this platform maintains a more crypto-punk style, which aligns well with the investors' style.

Infrastructure: In 2021, when everyone was chasing DeFi tokens, his fund quietly invested in projects that provide infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

This investor's understanding of Bitcoin is far more complex than just being digital gold. In April 2021, he suggested in a conversation with the former Secretary of State that Bitcoin could be a financial weapon used by certain countries to undermine the dollar.

The cryptocurrency 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 ideology, the logic becomes clear: Bitcoin is not only an investment asset but also a tool of geopolitical strategy. It can take the initiative in the new financial war.

Interestingly, just a year later, he changed his tune at a Bitcoin conference, describing it as a revolutionary weapon against the old guard of finance. He even listed the enemies: certain traditional financial giants.

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 demonstrates his core characteristic: using narrative as a weapon.

The results were remarkable: timely liquidation before the crypto winter in 2022, resulting in a profit of $1.8 billion; in 2023, when Bitcoin dropped to $30,000, they took action again and bought $100 million. A textbook example of buying low and selling high.

Intriguing details: In July 2024, when the Bitcoin ETF is launched and institutional funds flood in, he openly stated that he is unsure it will see a significant increase from here. The real weapon is never an ETF that everyone can buy.

Behind every layout is an unfulfilled currency dream

Looking at this investor's fund portfolio, the pattern is clear: hardly any investment in DApps, no involvement in GameFi, and only a superficial interest in NFTs. What he is truly interested in are: Layer 2 scaling solutions, compliant infrastructure, derivatives protocols, and stablecoin networks. The belief that protocols are superior to products is his creed.

Back in 1998, what was the initial vision when he and his partner founded the early payment company? It wasn't to create a payment tool, but to create a new form of currency.

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

In 2002, a certain e-commerce giant acquired this payment company for 1.5 billion dollars. The first thing he did after cashing out: establish an investment company to systematically seek the next currency revolution opportunity. He waited for 12 years.

In 2014, when he first seriously researched Bitcoin, what he saw was not electronic cash, but an unfinished currency 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 writings, he repeatedly emphasizes: competition is a game for 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 stifle 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 is building on Ethereum, owning Ether is equivalent to collecting rent. When all transactions require stablecoins, controlling the stablecoin protocol is equivalent to printing money. When regulation finally arrives, having a compliance license is equivalent to holding the ticket to enter.

He even funded key figures in this revolution. In 2014, his scholarship program awarded $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 wants to layout both traditional banks (traditional licenses) and DeFi protocols (decentralized finance) at the same time; no matter which path the future takes, he is a winner. The deeper reason may be that, in his view, cryptocurrency is not payment 2.0, but rather what early payment innovation should have become: a truly free global financial system that is not controlled by any government.

Now, his crypto empire has taken shape.

In 2025, he is no longer satisfied with being a passive coin holder. Through BitMine, exchanges, and bank projects, he is building a complete crypto financial empire.

Writing to this point, a question arises: why is he so aggressive while traditional financial giants are still watching? Perhaps the answer lies in his words from 2015: "We live in a world where coins are unregulated and atoms are regulated."

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

After all, as his friend, the CEO of a well-known tech company, said: "The best adventure is a calculated risk." In this ultimate adventure of cryptocurrency, his calculations have just begun.