Bitmine’s Ethereum purchase nears 5% ownership threshold amid ETH’s 30% surge

2h ago•

bullish:

bearish:

Bitmine Immersion Technologies just made its biggest bet on Ethereum in weeks, and the scale of the move says almost as much as the price tag attached to it. The latest Bitmine Ethereum purchase — 32,447 ETH worth roughly $81.2 million — marks the company’s largest single-week addition since early July, according to CoinDesk. It lands at a moment when ether itself is roaring back, up about 30% over the past seven days, and when Bitmine’s long-stated goal of owning a meaningful slice of the entire Ethereum network is finally within arm’s reach.

Key takeaways

Bitmine bought 32,447 ETH last week, worth about $81.2 million — its largest weekly purchase since early July.
The firm now holds nearly 5.85 million ETH, valued at roughly $14.6 billion.
Bitmine controls about 4.8% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million token supply and needs roughly 187,000 more ETH to reach its 5% ownership goal.
ETH jumped about 30% in a week, a rally Tom Lee compares to moves that preceded 167% and 170% gains in 2021 and 2025.
Bitmine has staked 5.07 million ETH — about 87% of its holdings — projecting roughly $330 million in annual staking revenue.

Bitmine’s Largest ETH Purchase Since Early July

Bitmine’s latest Ethereum purchase adds up to 32,447 ETH picked up over a single week, its biggest weekly haul since early July, following several weeks of far more modest additions to its crypto treasury. At Monday’s ETH price near $2,500, that buy carried a value of about $81.2 million, according to CoinDesk. Shares of Bitmine, which trades under the ticker BMNR, rose roughly 3.5% in pre-market trading as ether pushed back above $2,500.

Why the Buying Pace Picked Up Now

Bitmine had eased off its buying in recent months as it closed in on its self-imposed ownership target, but the company hasn’t skipped a single week of accumulation. Chairman Tom Lee has said Bitmine has added ETH every week since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025. The return to a larger weekly purchase lines up with a broader rebound in crypto prices, and it shows the company is still willing to accelerate buying whenever market conditions turn favorable — a detail that matters for anyone trying to gauge how deep institutional demand for ether really runs right now.

Bitmine’s ETH Holdings and Ownership Goals

Bitmine now holds nearly 5.85 million ETH, a stash worth about $14.6 billion at current prices, after last week’s purchase lifted its total to 5,847,611 tokens. That puts the company, already the largest Ethereum treasury firm on the market, just shy of a goal it has been chasing since it began buying: owning 5% of Ethereum’s entire circulating supply.

How Close Bitmine Is to Owning 5% of Ethereum

Bitmine’s holdings currently account for roughly 4.8% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million token supply. Hitting the 5% threshold would require about 6.04 million ETH at current supply levels, leaving Bitmine roughly 187,000 tokens short of its target. That gap is small enough that a few more aggressive weekly purchases like the latest one could close it entirely — a sign that a long-stated ambition has turned into a near-term milestone rather than a distant one.

ETH Market Rally and Tom Lee’s Price Outlook

Ether gained about 30% over the past week, a rally Tom Lee argues could still have further to run. Lee, Bitmine’s chairman, has pointed to two earlier instances of similarly sharp weekly gains — in July 2021 and May 2025 — as evidence that such moves tend to mark the start of something bigger rather than the finish line.

What History Suggests About Ether’s Next Move

“In those two precedent instances, this weekly gain of >30% signaled a launch point for a larger move in ETH,” Lee said, noting that ether went on to climb 167% after the 2021 surge and 170% after the 2025 one. Historical patterns don’t guarantee a repeat, but Lee has tied the current setup to easing financial conditions, Wall Street’s push to tokenize assets on-chain, and the growing possibility that AI agents will transact using blockchain rails — trends he expects to help ether gain ground against bitcoin over time. The rally also coincided with broader tailwinds for risk assets: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s plan to at least double the government’s regular long-term bond buybacks, and a White House crypto summit where President Trump pressed Congress to advance the CLARITY Act. BMNR shares climbed more than 26% over the same five-day stretch, based on S&P Global Market Intelligence data — a reminder that this Ethereum purchase and the stock’s rally are unfolding side by side.

Bitmine’s ETH Staking and Revenue Projections

Bitmine has staked 5.07 million ETH, about 87% of its total holdings, putting most of its treasury to work rather than letting it sit idle. At current yields, the company projects roughly $330 million in annualized staking revenue — a figure that turns Bitmine’s Ethereum stockpile into a recurring income stream rather than a static bet on price alone.

Why Staking Changes the Investment Case

That staking revenue matters beyond the balance sheet. It gives Bitmine a built-in incentive to keep accumulating ETH even when prices swing hard, since a larger staked position compounds into a bigger annual yield regardless of short-term volatility. Paired with Bitmine’s approach toward owning nearly 5% of all ETH in circulation, the staking program adds a layer of strategic depth to a company that started out looking mostly like a leveraged proxy for ether’s price.