Mr. Beast Industries Raises $200 Million from ETH Giant Bitmine to Expand Into DeFi
He doesn’t just make YouTube videos anymore, but also merchandise, a burger restaurant, and his own show for Amazon: the online video genre today is unthinkable without Mr. Beast, and the business behind it is about to get even bigger.
The Ethereum treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies (the world’s largest holder of ETH) has announced a $200 million investment in Beast Industries, the company behind YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, known by the name MrBeast. The transaction is expected to close on or around January 19, 2026, and gives Bitmine a stake in a brand with significant reach among younger audiences.
Beast Industries reaches more than 450 million subscribers across its YouTube channels and has expanded its business beyond pure content creation into consumer products such as Feastables chocolate bars and social initiatives like Beast Philanthropy. The platform is considered one of the largest and most innovative creator-based companies in the world and particularly attracts generations Z, Alpha, and millennials.
For Bitmine, which also includes Peter Thiel as a stakeholder, this investment certainly represents a necessary boost. The stock price of the company that accumulates ETH has not been performing particularly well.
Strategic Focus on Young Audiences
Bitmine’s chairman, Tom Lee, emphasizes Mr. Beast’s leading position as a content creator of this generation with unmatched reach and engagement among young audiences. The company’s leadership sees a strong alignment of entrepreneurial and personal values between both organizations. Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold views the investment as validation of the company’s vision, strategy, and growth trajectory.
Bitmine currently holds more than 4.07 million Ether valued at approximately $13.6 billion, controlling over 3.36 percent of total Ethereum supply. The company also has approximately one billion dollars in cash and is backed by a premier group of institutional investors, including ARK’s Cathie Wood, MOZAYYX, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Bill Miller III, Pantera, Kraken, DCG, and Galaxy Digital. The company’s investment strategy follows the philosophy of the so-called five percent alchemy and aims to acquire five percent of all circulating Ether.
Expansion into DeFi
The capital infusion is intended to support Beast Industries’ plans to launch a financial services platform that leverages decentralized finance mechanisms. The company aims to become the world’s most influential entertainment brand and plans to integrate DeFi technologies into the upcoming platform. Beast Industries previously hinted at potential crypto ambitions through a U.S. trademark filing for MrBeast Financial, with the language in the filing suggesting potential use of cryptocurrencies in the product.
Bitmine will hold its annual shareholder meeting on January 15, 2026, at the Wynn Las Vegas and plans to launch MAVAN in the first quarter of 2026, a dedicated staking infrastructure for the company’s assets. The company’s strategy is based on native protocol activities such as staking and decentralized finance mechanisms to position Ethereum as a primary treasury reserve asset for institutional investors and public market participants.
