BitMine's Ethereum Bet 'Shaken' by Hyperliquid's Surge...Tom Lee, Was He Wrong This Time?

▲ Ethereum (ETH)/AI Generated Image

After Tom Lee's BitMine invested heavily in Ethereum (ETH) instead of Hyperliquid (HYPE), the widening performance gap between the two assets is fueling an intense debate over the success or failure of cryptocurrency treasury strategies.

According to crypto media outlet BeInCrypto on May 30 (local time), BitMine purchased 5.4 million ETH starting in June 2025, but these Ethereum holdings have fallen by 21% since June 30, 2025. During the same period, Hyperliquid saw the opposite trend, surging by 68%.

BitMine launched its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025, through a $250 million private placement. Tom Lee, head of Fundstrat, joined as chairman, and BitMine's strategy focused on creating an institutional Ethereum exposure vehicle aiming to secure approximately 5% of the Ether supply, rather than chasing short-term popular tokens.

BeInCrypto cited Ethereum staking yields, the liquidity required for large-scale fund deployment, and suitability for institutional investment as key justifications for this strategy. Approximately 87% of BitMine's holdings are deposited on the MAVAN staking platform, reportedly generating about $276 million in annualized revenue. Furthermore, BitMine absorbed an $8 billion loss without significantly distorting the Ethereum order book, while Hyperliquid's market capitalization of $14.9 billion would have likely struggled to accommodate a similar amount of capital inflow.

The counterarguments are also clear. Hyperliquid traded at $67.14 at the time of writing, having risen 101% over 12 months and 68% since BitMine's strategy shift. Hyperliquid allocates most of its fee revenue to buying HYPE in the open market, and this buyback program has absorbed over $1.16 billion in fees since its launch. DegenQuant, co-founder of Hyperbeat, stated, "If Tom Lee had bought HYPE instead of ETH with BitMine's funds, he would have achieved a 520% return and earned $44 billion. If HYPE reaches $100, it could even surpass Michael Saylor."

Hyperliquid has secured a dominant narrative in the on-chain market, capturing approximately 57.8% of the perpetual DEX market share. However, Kyle Samani, former co-founder of Multicoin Capital, pointed out, "Hyperliquid is just Binance 2.0 without a marketing team, and it has made thousands of technical decisions that work well in a centralized environment but may not work at all in a permissionless decentralized environment." BeInCrypto assessed that if the market moves in terms of months, Hyperliquid leads, but based on tokenization adoption, the situation favors BitMine's Ethereum holdings.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*