Bitmine Adds 15,112 Ethereum, Holdings Near 5% of Total Supply; Chairman Declares Bull Market Underway

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) increased its Ethereum stash to roughly 6.02 million tokens after buying 15,112 ETH in the past week, the company announced. That represents 4.9% of the total 122.1 million ETH in circulation, making Bitmine the largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury in the world.

The company said its combined crypto, cash, marketable securities, and “moonshots” — including stakes in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS) and Beast Industries — now total $17.4 billion. Cash and marketable securities alone stand at $643 million.

Chairman Tom Lee said the weekly purchase is part of a consistent strategy. “Bitmine has bought ETH each and every week since the inception of the ETH Treasury Strategy on June 30, 2025,” Lee stated in a release. The company is 99% of the way to its stated goal of acquiring 5% of all Ethereum, a target Lee described as the “Alchemy of 5%,” which it has pursued over the past 15 months.

Lee also highlighted the stock’s relative resilience during the 2025-2026 bear market. “In the first 9 months of 2026, ETH declined 10% while BMNR was down by 3%, or outperformance of 731bp,” he said. Benzinga separately reported that Lee said the company had beaten the crypto bear market.

Quarter-to-date performance has been more dramatic. Lee noted that ETH outperformed the S&P 500 by 6,832 basis points in the third quarter of 2026 despite macro headwinds including a hawkish Fed, rising oil, and higher global bond yields. “The outperformance of ETH by 6,832bp relative to the S&P 500 in 3Q26 is notable,” he said.

**Staking Infrastructure and Revenue**

Bitmine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, or about 84% of its holdings, on its proprietary MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network) platform. The staked ETH is valued at $13.8 billion at a price of $2,726 per token. The company said its staking operations are generating an annualized yield of 2.63% on a seven-day basis, which it projects will produce staking rewards of $431 million per year once fully deployed. Current annualized staking revenues are estimated at $363 million.

“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,” Lee said. MAVAN was originally developed to serve the company’s own treasury but has since expanded to serve institutional investors and custodians.

**Market Position and Trading Volume**

Bitmine was added to the Russell 1000 Large-cap index on June 26, 2026. The company’s Series A Preferred Stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol BMNP. Lee said the company executed the “largest ever crypto treasury equity buyback,” acquiring 21 million shares in 2026 alone.

Trading volume remains elevated. According to data from Fundstrat cited by the company, Bitmine averaged $827 million in daily dollar volume over the five days ending October 2, ranking 125th among 5,704 US-listed stocks — behind Bristol-Myers Squibb and ahead of Schlumberger.

Bitmine is the second-largest publicly traded crypto treasury by value, trailing only Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR), which holds 847,666 Bitcoin worth roughly $78 billion.

**Lee’s Broader Outlook and Institutional Backing**

Lee will deliver the keynote address at the Token2049 conference in Singapore on October 7, 2026. The title of his upcoming Chairman’s Message is “Crypto bull underway — this cycle likely the largest.”

In the same release, Lee compared the current regulatory environment — citing the GENIUS Act and the SEC’s Project Crypto — to the 1971 U.S. decision to end the Bretton Woods system, which he said catalyzed the modernization of Wall Street. “These proved to be better investments than gold,” he said.

The company’s investor base includes ARK’s Cathie Wood, MOZAYYX, Founders Fund, Bill Miller III, Pantera, Kraken, DCG, Galaxy Digital, and Lee personally.

Nasdaq, in a summary of the announcement, described Bitmine as “hoarding as much Ethereum as it can,” underlining the aggressive accumulation by a major corporate treasury.

The consistent weekly buying and the sheer size of Bitmine’s Ethereum position — now approaching a 5% share of the entire network — signal sustained institutional conviction in the asset as the industry enters what the company’s chairman has declared a new bull cycle.