Bitmine Immersion Technologies, led by Chairman Tom Lee, has purchased an additional 101,901 ETH, bringing its total holdings to over 5 million tokens, approximately 4.21% of the circulating ether supply. This milestone was achieved in roughly 10 months, following the company's strategic shift from bitcoin mining to a digital asset treasury strategy in June. According to Lee, 'Bitmine's ETH holdings have exceeded 5 million, marking a significant milestone in our pursuit of acquiring 5% of the ETH 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 ETH 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 ETH is increasingly being viewed as a 'store of value' and collateral, given its growing use in financial transactions.
He also highlighted ETH's outperformance of the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict and its potential for long-term growth, driven by use cases such as tokenization and AI systems relying on public blockchains. As Lee noted, 'There is significant meaning to ETH being the best 'war-time store of value' and to ETH being the asset leading since the war started.'