BitMine Nears 4% of Ethereum Supply as ETH Hits Weekly High

BitMine Immersion Technologies, the Ethereum treasury firm backed by Tom Lee, has accumulated enough ETH to control nearly 4% of the entire circulating supply — a staggering position that keeps growing even as the company's own stock sits deep in the red. On Monday, BitMine announced it added 71,252 ETH worth $152 million over the past week, pushing total holdings past 4.8 million ETH at a valuation of roughly $10.3 billion.

BitMine Crosses 3.98% of Ethereum Supply in One Week

The accumulation pace here is hard to dismiss. BitMine added the equivalent of a mid-size institutional crypto fund's entire holdings in seven days. That brings the firm's 4,803,000 ETH stake to 3.98% of total circulating supply — and with continued buying at this pace, crossing 4% looks like a matter of weeks, not months.

Tom Lee, who chairs BitMine Immersion Technologies, framed the latest purchase against a backdrop of global market turbulence. The firm's announcement landed on a Monday when most risk assets were nursing wounds from geopolitical pressure — which makes Ethereum's relative strength all the more notable in Lee's view.

The war has placed downward pressure on global markets, so it is impressive to see ETH as one of the few to rise on an absolute basis. This is a great harbinger, as we expect ETH leadership to strengthen investors and eventually take cash off the sidelines.

Why Is Ethereum Outperforming Traditional Markets Right Now?

Short answer: it's not just crypto momentum. Ethereum hit a weekly high of $2,165 on Monday before pulling back slightly to around $2,145 — a 5.4% gain in 24 hours. Over the past month, ETH is up more than 8%, while the S&P 500 has dropped 2% and the Nasdaq has lost 1.80%. That's the kind of divergence that gets institutional attention.

Lee pointed to two structural drivers. First: Wall Street's accelerating push to tokenize real-world assets on blockchain rails. Second: agentic AI systems — the kind that run autonomously and need to interact with public, neutral infrastructure. Both narratives are long-cycle tailwinds, not short-term catalysts. Whether they justify accumulating at this scale is a different question.

Ethereum continues to benefit from the dual tailwinds of Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain and from agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains.

Staking Income: The $282 Million Annual Revenue Play

There's a financial logic to the accumulation beyond price appreciation. BitMine has staked 69% of its total ETH holdings, meaning the vast majority of that $10.3 billion position is actively earning yield. The firm projects that once its full Ethereum stack is deployed to staking, it will generate roughly $282 million in annual staking revenues — without selling a single token.

That's a real income stream, not paper gains. For a company building its entire treasury thesis around a single asset, that kind of predictable yield is the difference between a speculative bet and an income-generating corporate strategy. It also means BitMine can weather extended price drawdowns without being forced to liquidate — which, given the six-month chart, is probably relevant right now.

BMNR Stock Pops, But Six-Month Reality Check Stings

BMNR stock gained roughly 6% on Monday, trading around $20.64 at last check. Month-over-month the stock is up more than 9%, which tracks with ETH's recent bounce. But zoom out and the picture shifts hard — BMNR is still down 67% over the past six months, a stretch during which Ethereum itself fell nearly 57% from its all-time high of $4,946.

That's the uncomfortable math behind the headline. BitMine is building one of the largest single-entity ETH positions on the planet, but shareholders who came in during the last peak have been punished heavily. The accumulation strategy only wins big if ETH reclaims significantly higher levels — and the all-time high is still more than double the current price.

Call it conviction or call it doubling down — either way, Lee isn't blinking. His firm keeps buying. The question for anyone watching from the outside isn't whether the thesis is coherent. It is. The real question is whether BMNR's public investors have the same time horizon as its chairman.