Morning Minute: ETH Soars as BMNR Files to Buy $25B

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors soar led by ETH and SOL; Bitcoin breaks $120,000
• Tom Lee files to raise $20B ATM for more ETH; ETH +9% to $4,700
• ETHZilla stock (ATNF) pops 300% after ETH buys & Peter Thiel disclosure
• OKX’s OKB token jumps 130% after announcing a new buyback program
• Coinbase introduces stablecoin fund to deepen DeFi liquidity and help protocols grow

💰 Tom Lee’s BitMine Goes All-In on Ethereum

You may be tired of reading about the ETH TreasuryCo race, but I’m sorry – it’s the biggest story in town.

And the story just entered a surprising (mega bullish) new chapter.

📌 What Happened:

BitMine Immersion (BMNR), led by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, has filed to boost its at-the-market stock offering from $4.5B to $24.5B, with the extra $20B earmarked entirely for Ethereum purchases.

Yes that’s right, $20B more for ETH purchases!

The firm already holds ~1.15M ETH worth nearly $5B, about 1% of supply, and now wants to scale that to 5%.

Ethereum jumped ~10% on the news, passing $4,600 and extending its ~70% YTD rally.

🗣️ What They’re Saying:

“I can defeat all your ETH bear arguments in one sentence. Tom Lee just filed to expand his ETH buys by $20 billion.” – Ryan Adams, Bankless

“Tom Lee wants to buy $20B worth of ETH in a single year. 5% of the total ETH supply. on pace to achieve it in 2026. 12x faster than Michael Saylor. only one of the many ETH treasuries” – ripdoteth, on X

🧠 Why It Matters:

The ETH bid is infinite right now.

Tom Lee and Joe Lubin are likely going to try to accumulate $20B-$30B in ETH over the coming months.

For perspective, that would be the equivalent of $100B-$150B for Bitcoin.

And this comes as the ETH ETFs just set their new single-day record with $1B in net inflows (again, equivalent to ~$5B in BTC net inflows).

This is insatiable demand, and there isn’t enough sell pressure to slow this rally down in the near term.

ETH is going to ATHs, and very soon.

The waiting room is open – and Tom Lee is holding the door…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors were very green after a mixed CPI result; BTC +2% at $120,700, ETH +9% at $4,680, XRP +4% at $3.28, SOL +15% at $201
• OKB (+130%), Fartcoin (+30%), AERO (+23%) and RAY (+20%) led top movers
• The ETH ETFs saw $1.02B in net inflows on Monday, a smashing new record ($178.1M for BTC)
• Coinbase announced a new Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund to deepen stablecoin liquidity in DeFi and help teams grow their protocols
• Patrick Witt is expected to succeed Bo Hines as Trump’s crypto advisor
• eToro disclosed that crypto trading accounted for 91 % of its total revenue in Q2, making digital asset trading the company’s main income source
• Circle announced an offering of 10M more shares
• Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin started accepting crypto for space flights
• Do Kwon pled guilty to fraud charges tied to his role in Terra Luna, with a max term of 12 years in prison

In Corporate Treasuries

• BMNR filed a new ATM to raise up to $20B (up from $4.5B) to buy more ETH
• ETHZilla (ATNF) popped 300% after Peter Thiel disclosed a 7.5% ownership stake and sharing that they own 82.186 ETH with $238M cash on hand
• Metaplanet and Smarter Web Company have added 518 BTC and 295 BTC respectively to their treasuries

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are very green on the day; DOGE +12%, Shiba +9%, PEPE +10%, PENGU +9%, BONK +12%, TRUMP +8%, SPX +6%, and FARTCOIN +30%
• ORANGE was the new runner of the day, jumping 18x to $14M; a new PEPE token ran 4,000% to $8M
• nub (+44%) and fwog (+33%) were other notable SOL meme movers; JUGS jumped 69% to $5.4M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap up 8% to $13.2B, leaders were very green
• FARTCOIN (+30%), VIRTUAL (+8%), TIBBIR (+15%), ai16z (+13%) & AIXBT (+8%)
• GAMBLE (+50%), YNE (+50%) and Realis (+42%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders were red and correcting after the ETH rally; Punks -4% at 52.5 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 14.45, BAYC -3% at 13 ETH
• CryptoFish (+60%) and Azuki (+8%) were notable top movers
• CryptoPunks hit a $250,000 floor in the ETH move to $4,600
• Bitcoin NFTs were mostly green or even, led by Adderrels +75%
• Abstract NFTs were mostly red, led by Noah’s Ark (+30%)
• Beeple shared that his next NFT event will be hosted by Danny McBride, while 2 ‘Politics Is Bullshit”‘ editions were bought for 52 ETH each