BitMine Shares Fall After Closing of $250 Million Private Placement

By Natalie WegerShares of BitMine Immersion Technologies fell Wednesday after the company closed a $250 million private placement to support its Ethereum strategy.Shares fell 45% to $61.28 on Wednesday, giving back some gains after a nearly 700% rally following the initial disclosure of the private placement.The stock has remained volatile since, climbing to a multiyear high of $161 last Thursday following its $4.27 Monday close, according to FactSet.The private placement will help the company adopt ether as its primary treasury reserve asset, BitMine said. The transaction was led by Mozayyx, with participation from other investors including Founders Fund, Pantera and Thomas Lee, who was appointed BitMine's chairman, the Las Vegas company said.BitMine added that, by having a direct ETH treasury position, it will have access to native protocol-level activities, such as staking and decentralized finance mechanisms on the Ethereum network."There's a powerful, self-reinforcing cycle at play: by securing and staking a growing share of ETH, we contribute to Ethereum's economic security, which can bring institutional capital and real-world assets on-chain," said Lee.Write to Natalie Weger at [email protected]