Bitmine Immersion Technologies has accelerated its Ether purchases, chairman Tom Lee said Monday, following an over-the-counter acquisition of 5,000 ETH directly from the Ethereum Foundation. Lee said the company bought 60,999 ETH over the past week, above its recent weekly average of roughly 45,000–50,000 ETH.
Those buys bring Bitmine’s publicly disclosed Ethereum holdings to about 4.596 million ETH, roughly 3.81% of total supply. The company reported combined crypto holdings, cash and other investments of around $11.5 billion.
About 3,040,515 ETH — roughly 66% of Bitmine’s stash — are currently staked, which the company values at about $6.6 billion using an Ether price of $2,185. Bitmine estimates its staking operations generate roughly $180 million in annualized revenue and intends to expand staking through its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), slated to launch in the coming months.
Bitmine said the 5,000 ETH OTC deal with the Ethereum Foundation was structured to let the foundation fund operations without selling on the open market. Bitmine shares (BMNR) closed Monday up nearly 14% at $23.39, according to Yahoo Finance.
The announcement coincided with a disclosure from Strategy — described as the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury company — which reported a purchase of 22,337 BTC for $1.57 billion, pushing its total holdings above 760,000 BTC.
Corporate treasuries now control more than 5% of Ether supply
While many public firms have slowed Ether accumulation over the past month, Bitmine has been expanding quickly. CoinGecko data show that among the 20 largest corporate Ether treasuries, only four increased holdings in the last 30 days. Over that period Bitmine added 269,824 ETH, far more than peers such as SharpLink (3,859 ETH) and Eightco (11,068 ETH).
Eightco raised $125 million last week to boost investments in blockchain and AI; Bitmine led the round with $75 million, while ARK Invest and Payward (Kraken’s parent) each contributed $25 million. As part of the deal, Tom Lee joined Eightco’s board.
Across the market, 30 public entities in seven countries hold about 6.6 million ETH — roughly $15.4 billion — representing about 5.47% of Ether’s total supply, per CoinGecko.
Ether was trading near $2,342 — up almost 11% over 24 hours but down about 21% year-to-date — giving the token a market capitalization near $282 billion with roughly 120.7 million ETH in circulation.
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