Compass Investments

– Tom Lee’s BitMine bet on Ethereum, ignoring Hyperliquid, while HYPE showed a 68% growth.

BitMine owns 5.4 million ETH purchased since June 2025, the value of which has dropped 21% .

Kyle Samani called Hyperliquid a centralized version of Binance 2.0 that lacks decentralization.

BitMine, owned by Tom Lee, acquired 5.4 million Ethereum (ETH) instead of Hyperliquid (HYPE), and now faces a tough choice. Ethereum stock has lost 21% of its value since June 30, 2025. HYPE has added 68% to its value over the same period.

The question is whether Tom Lee succeeded in creating the expected institutional position. Or did he choose the wrong asset for the current cycle, which has already generously rewarded perpetual tokens.

Both scenarios can be considered until ETH either regains its position or continues to fall.

BitMine launched its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025 with a $250 million private placement.

Tom Lee, head of Fundstrat, joined the company as chairman. The company was not tasked with chasing the most popular token of the current cycle. It aims for about 5% of the ether supply (via alchemy) as a public indicator of institutional investment in ETH.

This idea is built on three main principles:

the yield from ether staking turns the treasury into an income-generating asset, not just a static accumulated sum.

About 87% of the funds are hosted on BitMine’s MAVAN platform, generating approximately $276 million in annual revenue.

The importance of liquidity at this scale is undeniable.

BitMine sustained $8 billion in losses without disrupting the ETH order system.

Tom Lee lost eight billion dollars on ETH, and Vitalik decided to write a fantasy novel, said David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless.

Indeed, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced that he will suspend his regular blog posts to write science fiction about decentralized governance, exploring the idea of governance through fiction rather than academic articles.

Meanwhile, HYPE’s market capitalization of $14.9 billion could not sustain such an intervention without significant fluctuations.