Bitmine ($BMNR), Led By Tom Lee, Now Holds 4.8% Of Ethereum (ETH) Supply After Latest Acquisition

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), chaired by Tom Lee, has expanded its Ethereum holdings to approximately 4.8% of the network’s circulating supply after another weekly purchase. The company reported acquiring an additional 9,926 ETH during the week ending around mid-August 2026.

This brought its total Ethereum position to roughly 5.815 million tokens.

Valued at about $1,893 to $1,904 per token at the time of the update, the stash was worth nearly $11 billion.

Relative to Ethereum’s circulating supply of around 120.7 million tokens, the position equates to 4.8%.

Bitmine has pursued a consistent accumulation approach since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025.

Over roughly 14 months of weekly purchases, it has advanced to 96% of its self-described “Alchemy of 5%” target—an ambition to control 5% of the total ETH supply.

The latest buy continued that uninterrupted cadence. Lee highlighted technical and fundamental signals supporting the strategy.

He noted that the ETH/BTC ratio had climbed above a multi-year downward trend, reaching levels near 0.02994 and continuing higher.

In his view, this shift suggests markets are beginning to factor in rising demand for Ethereum driven by tokenization initiatives and AI-agent applications running on the blockchain.

Lee also pointed to expected easing financial conditions as a broader positive for the crypto sector. Beyond simple accumulation,

Bitmine emphasizes productive use of its holdings.

As of the mid-August update, the company had staked about 5.067 million ETH—about 87% of its total position—valued near $9.6 billion.

Much of this is deployed through its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), an institutional staking platform.

Projected annualized staking revenues stood around $250 million based on recent yields near 2.61%, with higher potential figures if the full holdings are staked at scale.

The firm’s overall crypto, cash, marketable securities, and strategic investments totaled about $11.4 billion.

This included 210 bitcoin, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, a $73 million position in Eightco Holdings, and roughly $78 million in cash and securities.

Bitmine positions itself as the largest corporate Ethereum treasury and the second-largest crypto treasury overall, trailing only Strategy’s bitcoin holdings.

In parallel with ETH purchases, the company continued share repurchases.

It bought back 1.7 million of its own common shares in the latest week, raising cumulative buybacks since early July 2026 to more than 20.8 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion program.

Lee described the shares as undervalued and characterized the repurchase effort as significant within the digital asset treasury sector.

Market response was constructive, with BMNR shares rising in the session following the announcement. Ethereum itself posted modest gains over the prior 24 hours.

The company’s approach combines long-term holding with yield generation via staking and selective equity activity, while maintaining institutional support from investors including ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood and others.

Bitmine’s progress underscores a strategy that treats Ethereum not merely as a balance-sheet asset but as infrastructure supporting emerging use cases in tokenization and AI. With the 5% target now within closer reach, the firm’s weekly cadence and staking operations remain central to its positioning in the Ethereum ecosystem.