$200 million investment in MrBeast's company, top influencer MrBeast has become a big name for Tom Lee

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Article by: Seed.eth

$200 million, is the recently announced figure.

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), chaired by renowned Wall Street analyst Tom Lee, announced it will invest in the parent company behind the top influencer MrBeast, Beast Industries. Meanwhile, Beast Industries stated in an official release that the company will explore how to “integrate DeFi into the upcoming financial services platform.”

If you only read the news, it seems like another familiar crossover: traditional finance, crypto, influencers, startups—on one side is the YouTube giant with over 400 million cumulative subscribers, where a single video can be algorithmically weighted in your favor; on the other side is a top crypto analyst from Wall Street, skilled at weaving blockchain concepts into balance sheets—everything seems logical.

The Path of MrBeast

Looking back at MrBeast’s early videos, it’s hard to connect them with today’s $5 billion valuation of Beast Industries.

In 2017, shortly after graduating high school, Jimmy Donaldson( uploaded a video of himself counting from 1 to 44 hours straight—“Challenge: Count from 1 to 100000!” The content was simple to the point of childishness, with no plot, no editing—just one person facing the camera, repeating numbers over and over, yet it marked a turning point in his content career.

At that time, he was under 19, with only about 13,000 subscribers. The video quickly surpassed one million views, becoming the first viral phenomenon globally.

Later, in interviews, he recalled that period and said:

“I wasn’t really trying to go viral; I just wanted to see if, by dedicating all my time to something no one else wanted to do, the results would be different.”

Jimmy Donaldson succeeded in building his channel into what is now known as MrBeast. But more importantly, from that moment on, he developed an almost obsessive belief: attention is not a gift from talent but earned through投入 and endurance.

Treat YouTube as a Business, Not Just a Platform for Creation

Many creators, after gaining popularity, choose to “consolidate”: reduce risks, improve efficiency, and turn content into stable cash flow.

MrBeast took the opposite approach.

He repeatedly emphasizes in interviews:

“Most of the money I make is spent on the next video.”

This is the core of his business model.

By 2024, his main channel has over 460 million subscribers, with total video views exceeding 100 billion. But behind this success are extremely high costs:

• Cost of producing a top-tier video: often between $3 million and $5 million;

• Some large challenges or charity projects can cost over $10 million;

• His “Beast Games” on Amazon Prime Video, which he describes as “completely out of control,” and in interviews admits to losing tens of millions of dollars.

He said this without regret:

“If I don’t do this, viewers will go watch others.

At this level, you can’t save costs and still expect to win.”

This statement is almost the key to understanding Beast Industries.

Beast Industries: $400 million annual revenue, but thin profit margins

By 2024, MrBeast unified all his businesses under the name Beast Industries.

From publicly available information, this company has far exceeded the scope of a “creator side hustle”:

• Annual revenue over $400 million;

• Business spans content production, FMCG retail, licensing, and tools;

• After the latest funding round, market valuation is generally expected to be around $5 billion.

But it’s not easy.

While MrBeast’s YouTube main channel and Beast Games bring massive exposure, they almost consume all profits.

In stark contrast is his chocolate brand Feastables. Public data shows that in 2024, Feastables’ sales reached about $250 million, contributing over $20 million in profit. This marks Beast Industries’ first stable, replicable cash flow business. By the end of 2025, Feastables has entered over 30,000 retail stores across North America (including Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven), covering the US, Canada, and Mexico, greatly enhancing the brand’s offline sales capacity.

MrBeast has openly stated multiple times that video production costs are rising and becoming “harder to recoup.” Yet he continues to invest heavily in content creation because, in his view, this isn’t just paying for videos but buying traffic for the entire business ecosystem.

The core barrier of the chocolate business isn’t production but reaching consumers. While other brands need to spend huge sums on advertising, he only needs to release a video. Whether the video is profitable or not doesn’t matter; as long as Feastables keeps selling, the business cycle can continue.

“I’m actually a broke guy”

In early 2026, MrBeast revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he is “broke,” sparking discussion:

“I’m basically in ‘negative cash’ territory. People say I’m a billionaire, but I don’t have much in my bank account.”

This isn’t “bragging,” but a natural result of his business model.

MrBeast’s wealth is highly concentrated in unlisted equity; although he owns just over 50% of Beast Industries, the company continues to expand and almost never pays dividends; he even deliberately does not keep cash.

In June 2025, he admitted on social media that he had to borrow money from his mother to pay for his wedding because he had poured all his savings into video production.

He later explained more bluntly:

“I don’t look at my bank account balance—that affects my decision-making.”

And his investments have long gone beyond content and consumer goods.

In fact, during the NFT boom in 2021, blockchain records show he bought and traded multiple CryptoPunks, some sold at prices as high as 120 ETH per piece (roughly hundreds of thousands of dollars at the time).

However, as the market entered a correction phase, his attitude became more cautious.

The real turning point is that “MrBeast”’s own business model has reached a critical edge.

When a person controls the world’s top traffic portals but remains in a state of high investment, cash tightness, and expansion relying on financing, finance is no longer just an investment option but a fundamental infrastructure that must be reconstructed.

In recent years, internal discussions within Beast Industries have become clearer: how to make users no longer just “watch content, buy products,” but enter into a long-term, stable, and sustainable economic relationship?

This is precisely the direction that traditional internet platforms have been exploring for years: payments, accounts, credit systems. And at this juncture, the emergence of Tom Lee and BitMine Immersion (BMNR) points this path toward a more structural possibility.

Partnering with Tom Lee to build DeFi infrastructure

On Wall Street, Tom Lee has always played the role of “narrative architect.” From early explanations of Bitcoin’s value logic to emphasizing Ethereum’s strategic importance in corporate balance sheets, he is adept at translating technological trends into financial language. BMNR’s investment in Beast Industries is not about chasing influencer hype but betting on the programmable future of attention portals.

So, what does DeFi mean here?

Currently, public information is very restrained: no token issuance, no yield promises, and no fan-exclusive financial products. But “integrating DeFi into financial services platforms” points to several possibilities:

• Lower-cost payment and settlement layers;

• Programmable account systems for creators and fans;

• Asset recording and rights structures based on decentralized mechanisms.

The space for imagination is large, but the challenges are also clear. The current market, whether native DeFi projects or traditional institutions exploring transformation, has yet to establish sustainable models. If they fail to find a differentiated path in this fierce competition, the complexity of financial operations may erode the core capital he has accumulated over many years: fan loyalty and trust. After all, he has publicly stated multiple times:

“If one day what I do harms the audience, I’d rather do nothing.”

This statement may be repeatedly tested in every future financialization attempt.

So, when the world’s most powerful attention machine begins to seriously build financial infrastructure, will it become a new platform or an overly bold crossover?

The answer won’t be revealed soon.

But one thing he knows better than anyone: the greatest capital isn’t past glory but the right to “start over.”

After all, he’s only 27.