Bitmine Immersion Technologies, led by Chairman Tom Lee, has purchased an additional 101,901 ether tokens, bringing its total holdings to over 5 million tokens, approximately 4.21% of the circulating supply. This milestone was achieved in roughly 10 months, following the company's shift from bitcoin mining to a digital asset treasury strategy. Lee stated, 'Bitmine's ether holdings have surpassed 5 million, marking a significant milestone in our goal to acquire 5% of the ether supply.' The recent purchase, valued at around $236 million, continues the company's trend of larger weekly purchases, while most digital asset treasuries remain inactive.
Bitmine's total crypto and cash holdings now stand at $13.3 billion, including its ether position, 200 bitcoin, $940 million in cash, and equity stakes in various companies. The firm has also expanded its staking operations, with approximately 3.7 million tokens, or 73% of its holdings, now staked, generating around $264 million in annualized revenue. Lee emphasized ether's evolving role, citing research by Etherealize, which suggests that ether is increasingly being used as a store of value and collateral in financial transactions. He also noted that ether has outperformed the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict, and highlighted growing use cases such as tokenization and AI systems relying on public blockchains as a long-term driver for the asset.
According to Lee, 'ether has become the best wartime store of value, and its performance since the war started is a testament to its growing importance.'