Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) said it now holds 4.8 million ether (ETH), worth about $10.2 billion at current prices, putting the company within reach of its stated goal of accumulating 5% of the total ether supply.
In a statement on Monday, the company also said its shares will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange, delisted from the NYSE American, from April 9.
Bitmine has 3.98% of ether’s 120.7 million circulating supply compared to Strategy’s 3.8% of bitcoins 20 million Both companies have turned treasury accumulation into a stock market narrative, and both are buying aggressively as prices fall.
Bitmine acquired 71,252 ETH in the past week, its highest buying pace since late December, according to chairman Tom Lee, who framed the purchase as a bet that ether is in “the final stages of the mini-crypto winter.”
Total crypto and cash holdings are now $11.4 billion, including $864 million in cash, 198 BTC and minor positions in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.
Bitmine’s model deviates from strategy when it comes to staking or depositing tokens to help secure the Ethereum blockchain in exchange for a reward. Of the 4.8 million ETH held, 3.33 million have been staked through Mavan, the company’s institutional-grade validation network that went live on Monday.
The staked position is worth about $7.1 billion and generates $196 million in annual stake revenue with a yield of 2.78%, giving Bitmine a recurring revenue stream that Strategy’s bitcoin treasury does not have.
At full implementation, when all of Bitmine’s ETH is staked, the company projects $282 million in annual stake rewards.
Lee argued for the wartime nature of ether in the announcement, noting that ETH has gained 6.8% since the Iran conflict began, outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,130 basis points and gold by 1,840 basis points. “ETH is the wartime store of value,” Lee said, a framework that would have been hard to argue six months ago but has data behind it now.
Bitmine is now the 96th most traded stock in the US with an average daily volume of $987 million, ranking between Schlumberger and Adobe. The investor base includes ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital and Kraken.
