BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the Ethereum-centric treasury firm led by Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee, bought 82,353 ether through last week, worth about $306 million at early Monday prices, lifting its total holdings to 3.4 million tokens, the company reported Monday.
BMNR is lower by 5.7% in early Monday trading alongside a significant late weekend and Monday drop in crypto prices, with ETH lower by 3.5% over the past 24 hours to $3,715.
The company said it also increased its unencumbered cash balance to $389 million, up from $305 million a week ago. The combined value of BitMine’s crypto, cash and equity holdings now stands at $13.7 billion, according to the press release, including a $62 million position in Eightco Holdings and a total of 192 bitcoin.
The move brings BitMine’s share of the ETH supply to 2.8%, worth around $13.3 billion at current prices as part of a long-term strategy to acquire 5% of the token’s supply.
“We are now more than halfway to our goal,” Lee said in a statement.
The acquisition came as many government assets saw their share prices fall over the past few months as they struggled to raise cash and pursue their mandate to accumulate cryptocurrencies. Some entities, such as ETHZilla and Brazil’s OranjeBTC, returned to buy back shares when their share price fell below the net asset value of their underlying holdings.
