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 shift from a bitcoin miner to a digital asset treasury strategy company in June. Lee noted, 'Bitmine's ETH holdings have surpassed 5 million, marking a significant milestone as the company works towards acquiring 5% of the ETH supply.' The recent purchase, valued at approximately $236 million at current ETH prices, continues a trend of larger weekly purchases as Bitmine expands its position while most digital asset treasuries remain inactive. The company'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 companies such as Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.
Bitmine has also expanded its staking operations, with about 3.7 million tokens, or roughly 73% of its holdings, now staked, generating around $264 million in annualized revenue. The firm launched its Mavan staking platform in March to attract institutional clients and support its treasury operations. 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 as digital assets gain traction in financial transactions. He also highlighted ETH's outperformance of the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict and pointed to growing use cases, such as tokenization and AI systems relying on public blockchains, as a long-term driver for the asset.
According to Lee, 'There is significant significance to ETH being considered the best 'war-time store of value' and to ETH being the asset that has led since the war started.'