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 a bitcoin miner to a digital asset treasury strategy firm. The recent purchase, valued at around $236 million, marks a significant increase in the company's ether holdings, with most digital asset treasuries remaining inactive. The firm's total crypto and cash holdings now stand at $13.3 billion, including 200 bitcoin, $940 million in cash, and equity stakes in various companies.
Approximately 73% of its ether holdings, or 3.7 million tokens, are staked, generating around $264 million in annualized revenue. Tom Lee views ether as a 'wartime store of value', citing its increasing use as collateral and its outperformance of the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict. He believes ether's growing use cases, such as tokenization and AI systems, will drive long-term growth for the asset.