Bitmine Closes in on 5% of Ethereum Supply with $81M ETH Purchase

Bitmine, Immersion Technologies has been quietly accumulating Ethereum (ETH) for over a year, and its latest purchase of 32,447 tokens brings its total holdings to 5.84 million ETH. This represents about 4.8% of the total circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens, putting Bitmine within striking distance of its publicly stated goal of owning 5% of Ethereum's supply.

The acquisition cost around $81 million at Monday's market price, bringing Bitmine's total investment in ETH to over $19.5 billion. As prices recovered, the company's unrealized losses narrowed to below $5 billion from more than $8.4 billion about one week earlier.

Bitmine's Tom Lee notes that Ethereum's 30% weekly gain has only happened twice before, each time preceding a larger rally. He ties the recent surge to the US Treasury's announcement to double its monthly purchases of certain government bonds and broader macro tailwinds supporting demand for ETH.