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 supply of the second-largest cryptocurrency. This milestone was achieved in roughly 10 months, following the company's strategic shift from bitcoin mining to a digital asset treasury firm in June. Tom Lee stated, 'Bitmine's ETH holdings have surpassed 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 streak of substantial weekly acquisitions, while most digital asset treasuries remain inactive.
Bitmine's total crypto and cash holdings now stand at $13.3 billion, comprising 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. Tom Lee emphasized ETH's evolving role, citing research by Etherealize, which suggests that ETH is increasingly being viewed as a 'store of value' and collateral, driven by growing adoption in financial transactions. He also highlighted ETH's outperformance of the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict and its growing use cases, such as tokenization and AI systems, as a long-term driver for the asset.