Bitmine buys $236M in ether as Tom Lee touts ETH as store of value

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (stock ticker: BMNR) has made a significant move in the digital asset space. The company, led by Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee, purchased 101,901 ether (ETH) last week. This brings their total ether holdings above 5 million tokens. That position now represents about 4.21% of ether’s entire circulating supply.

The purchase was valued at roughly $236 million at current prices. It marks a steady continuation of large weekly buys by the firm. Bitmine has been accumulating ether aggressively since June, when it shifted from being a bitcoin mining company to a digital asset treasury strategy firm. In about 10 months, it reached this milestone.

Tom Lee commented on the achievement. “Bitmine $ETH holdings crossed 5 million this past week,” he said. “This is a major milestone as the company moves towards acquiring 5% of the $ETH supply.”

Company’s broader financial position

Beyond its ether stash, Bitmine’s total crypto and cash holdings stand at $13.3 billion. This includes a small position of 200 bitcoin, $940 million in cash, and equity stakes in firms like Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings, which is focused on Worldcoin.

The company has also expanded its staking operations. About 3.7 million tokens, or 73% of its holdings, are now staked. These staked assets are generating roughly $264 million in annualized revenue for the firm. Bitmine launched its Mavan staking platform in March, aiming to attract institutional clients while also supporting its own treasury operations.

BMNR shares were unchanged in pre-market trading following the update.

Ether’s evolving role

Lee framed ether’s role as shifting beyond a speculative asset. He pointed to recent research by Etherealize, suggesting that ETH is increasingly being treated as a “store of value” and as collateral. This comes as digital assets gain more traction in financial transactions.

He also noted that ETH has outperformed the S&P 500 since the start of the Iran conflict. Lee sees growing use cases, such as tokenization and AI systems relying on public blockchains, as long-term tailwinds for the asset.

“There is a lot of meaning to $ETH being the best ‘war-time store of value’ and to $ETH being the asset leading since the war started,” Lee said.

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