BitMine Immersion Technologies, the world’s largest corporate holder of Ethereum, has named Chi Tsang as its new Chief Executive Officer, marking a significant leadership shift at a time when both the company’s stock and the crypto market are under pressure. The firm, which manages more than $11 billion in ETH, announced the appointment on Friday, sending its shares lower in tandem with Ethereum’s own price decline.
Tsang steps into the role following the tenure of Jonathan Bates. Before joining BitMine, he founded the venture fund m1720 and previously spent a decade at HSBC, where he concluded his time as Head of Asia and TMT Global Banking in 2022. In his first statement as CEO, Tsang said that the technological shift brought about by blockchain and Ethereum resembles the wave of transformation driven by mobile phones and the early internet. He added that BitMine’s substantial holdings and strong reputation in both traditional finance and the Ethereum community position the company to evolve into a major financial institution.
The leadership shake-up extended beyond the CEO role. BitMine added Robert Sechan, Olivia Howe, and Jason Edgeworth to its board, broadening its strategic expertise. Tom Lee, the company’s chairman and the public face of BitMine since its pivot to Ethereum earlier in the year, said the new additions bring well-rounded experience across technology, decentralized finance, and capital markets. According to Lee, this strengthens the firm’s long-term goal of serving as a bridge between traditional market structures and what he called the “supercycle Ethereum ecosystem.”
Despite the optimism around the appointments, BitMine’s stock continued its downward slide, falling roughly 4% on the day to just above $35. The company’s shares have dropped nearly 34% over the past month, largely reflecting the broader pullback in crypto markets. As Ethereum loses value, so does BitMine’s vast treasury, amplifying the swings in its market capitalisation.
The leadership news comes shortly after BitMine made headlines for significantly increasing its Ethereum holdings. Earlier in the week, the company revealed that it had purchased an additional 110,301 ETH—worth about $389 million at the time—bringing its total stash to more than 3.5 million ETH. As of Monday, that treasury was valued near $11.2 billion, far ahead of the next-largest corporate holder, SharpLink Gaming, which reportedly controls about $2.75 billion worth of ETH. BitMine also maintains a smaller reserve of Bitcoin and nearly $400 million in cash.
Ethereum’s recent downturn has weighed on investor sentiment. The cryptocurrency is currently trading around $3,200, down more than 20% over the past month and about 35% below its August all-time high near $5,000. Still, prediction market users on Myriad remain cautiously optimistic, assigning slightly better-than-even odds that ETH will rebound to $4,000 before dropping to $2,500.
