“The chairman of the former bitcoin miner-turned-ether treasury firm reiterated his view that Ethereum is the future of finance.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
In a start-of-the-year message, Lee said the proposal to boost the company’s number of shares to 50 billion from 500 million is not a precursor to a move to “dilute” shareholders.
“[This]t doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total max shares to be,” Lee said.
Acknowledging that a higher share count does make it easier to enable the company to raise capital, Lee reminded that it also allows BitMine to pursue opportunistic dealmaking and — most importantly, according to Lee — accommodate future share splits.
Lee argued that BitMine’s share price has increasingly tracked ether since the company pivoted last year to make ETH its primary treasury asset. If ether’s price rises over the years as he expects — as high as $250,000 if bitcoin reaches $1 million — splits will be necessary to keep shares “accessible” to the public.
Lee framed the proposal within a broader thesis that Ethereum will play a central role in Wall Street’s push toward tokenized financial markets, pointing to public comments by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink about blockchain-based market infrastructure. Lee has separately said he has been accumulating ether personally, aligning his macro view with BitMine’s treasury strategy.
Lee reminded shareholders that they have until Jan. 14 to vote on the proposal, with BitMine’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for Jan. 15 in Las Vegas.
KuCoin captured a record share of centralized exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the broader crypto market.
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per monthmarking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralized exchange volumeas KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumeswhich slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly spliteach exceeding $500 billion for the year, signaling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activityreinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activityindicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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While South Korean financial officials acknowledged the need for new rules, disagreements over stablecoins delayed a broader crypto framework.
- South Koreans transferred over 160 trillion won to foreign crypto exchanges last year due to domestic regulatory restrictions.
- The delay in implementing the Digital Asset Basic Act has left a regulatory gap, pushing investors to offshore platforms.
- Domestic exchanges face strict regulations, limiting them to spot trading, while foreign platforms offer more complex products.
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