Bitmine Immersion Technologies scooped up 101,627 Ethereum tokens over the past week. That’s worth about $230 million at $2,300 per token. The move marks the company’s largest weekly purchase of 2026—and its biggest since December 2025. Holdings now top 4.97 million ETH, valued at $11.43 billion. And that’s roughly 4.1% of Ethereum’s total supply of 120.7 million tokens. Cash and other assets push total reserves to $12.9 billion, including 199 Bitcoin and stakes in ventures like Beast Industries.
Chairman Thomas ‘Tom’ Lee calls it conviction. ‘We see growing signs that the ‘mini-crypto’ winter is coming to an end,’ he said in a company update on X. Downside risks from the US-Iran war are fading, he argues. Ethereum has climbed 41% from early February lows. It has beaten the S&P 500 by 2,280 basis points since the conflict began on February 28. Lee positions ETH as the top ‘war-time store of value’—outpacing even gold by thousands of basis points. Yahoo Finance flagged the buy as a steady demand signal in a shaky market.
Bitmine didn’t start here. The New York-listed firm, ticker BMNR, pivoted from Bitcoin mining to an Ethereum treasury powerhouse in mid-2025. Backed by heavyweights—ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Bill Miller III, Pantera Capital, Kraken Ventures, DCG, Galaxy Digital, and Lee himself—it chased what Lee dubs ‘the alchemy of 5%.’ That’s owning 5% of all ETH. In nine months, it’s 81% there. PR Newswire, April 13.
Weekly buys tell the story. Look at the ramp-up: 101,627 ETH last week. Before that, 71,524 the week ending April 12. Then 71,252, 71,179, 65,341. Back to March: 60,999, 60,976. Steady acceleration from 40,000-50,000 ETH averages earlier in the year. Five-week streak hit 309,423 ETH by late March. On-chain data backs it, per company X posts from @BitMNR. Bitmine ranks as the world’s largest ETH holder—second overall in crypto treasuries, trailing only MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin stack.
Staking juices returns. Over 3.3 million ETH staked now, worth $7.7 billion. That’s 68% of holdings. Annualized rewards? $330 million at full scale, using a 2.88% seven-day yield topping the 2.76% Composite Ethereum Staking Rate. Bitmine’s MAVAN platform—launched early 2026—handles it. Made-in-America validators for institutions. ‘Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,’ Lee noted in March. Revenues already annualized at $212 million. PR Newswire.
But markets punish boldness. BMNR stock trades at $22.23, down 3% Monday. That’s a 30% yearly drop to levels far below its $161 peak. Market cap sits at $10 billion-ish, while ETH holdings alone value $11.4 billion. Discount? Wide. Trading volume surges though—$1.2 billion daily average, ranking #80 among US stocks, ahead of D-Wave Quantum, behind Uber. Yahoo Finance.
Context matters. Ethereum hovers at $2,300, down 22% year-to-date. Oil spikes from Iran tensions drag risk assets—crypto’s inverse correlation to crude hits yearly highs. Lee ties the ‘mini-crypto winter’ end to oil peaking. ‘The crypto winter likely ends when the upside risk to oil prices peaks,’ he said in late March. Yahoo Finance. Others dial back. MicroStrategy paused Bitcoin buys after 13 weeks. Bitmine stands alone as the big corporate accumulator.
And geopolitics sharpens the edge. As Iran war hits week seven, ETH gains 17.4% since start—top asset besides oil. Lee: ‘ETH beating gold by 2,743 basis points demonstrates ETH is the wartime store of value.’ Tailwinds? Wall Street tokenization on Ethereum. Agentic AI craving neutral blockchains. Ethereum processed 200 million transactions in Q1 2026—busiest quarter ever, per Cointelegraph.
Risks loom. Liquidity strains if ETH dips further. Regulatory shifts—like SEC’s Project Crypto or GENIUS Act—could reshape everything. Bitmine holds $1.12 billion cash, plus ‘moonshots’ like $200 million in MrBeast’s Beast Industries and $107 million in Eightco Holdings. Enough dry powder? For now.
Lee stays bullish. Past winters synced with 20% equity drops. This year’s milder—S&P down 8%. ‘Our view remains that the crypto winter is much closer to ending.’ Bitmine’s spree bets on it. In a field of pullbacks, one firm loads up. Watch the squeeze.
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