Bitmine Immersion Technologies now holds 6,001,302 ETH after buying another 17,362 tokens last week, a purchase worth just under $47 million at the $2,698 price used in its Monday disclosure. The stake equals 4.9% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of roughly 122.1 million tokens.
The company, chaired by former Fundstrat strategist Tom Lee, has added Ethereum every single week since it launched its treasury strategy on June 30, 2025. Fifteen months in, it controls the largest corporate Ether reserve in the world and the second-largest crypto treasury of any public company, behind only Strategy’s bitcoin hoard.
Ninety-eight percent of the way to 5%
Bitmine calls its target the “Alchemy of 5%” and says it is 98% of the way there. At the current circulating supply, 5% would be about 6.105 million ETH, leaving the company roughly 104,000 tokens short. At this month’s buying pace, it would cross the line in about six weeks.
The company has not said whether it stops at 5% or sets a new goal. Its total crypto, cash and marketable securities stood at $17.2 billion as of the Sept. 27 snapshot, including a $115 million stake in Eightco Holdings, a $180 million position in Beast Industries and about $67 million in cash.
Staking does the heavy lifting
Most of the pile is already working. Bitmine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, which it says is more than any other single entity worldwide. At a 7-day annualized yield of about 2.62%, the staked position generates roughly $358 million a year at current rates, revenue that arrives on top of whatever the tokens themselves do in price terms.
Lee used the weekly update to argue that institutional buyers remain underweight crypto and will keep adding exposure through the final months of 2026. “We are already seeing the synergies and positive network effects from our accumulating nearly 5% of ETH total supply,” he said in the statement. He added that the company sees “affirming signs that a crypto bull market is underway.”
Why the 5% number matters
A single holder controlling 5% of a major asset’s supply is unusual outside of founder and foundation wallets. Bitmine’s position means that roughly one in twenty circulating ETH sits on one NYSE-listed balance sheet, and that the tokens are largely locked in staking rather than available for trading.
That has two practical effects. First, it removes supply from the liquid market, which matters more in weeks when spot ETF inflows slow. Second, it concentrates staking influence. Ethereum’s proof-of-stake design gives large stakers a proportional say in block attestation, and a holder at the 5% mark sits near the threshold where regulators and protocol researchers start asking questions about concentration.
Lee has framed the target as a way to exert “constructive influence” on the network rather than to extract rent from it. Critics of treasury companies make the opposite case, arguing that hoarding supply and collecting staking yield adds no productive capacity to Ethereum and mostly amplifies volatility in both directions.
The comparison with Strategy, the bitcoin treasury pioneer, is instructive. Strategy’s bitcoin buys are a pure balance-sheet bet, since bitcoin pays no yield. Bitmine’s ETH generates cash flow while it sits, which changes the funding conversation entirely. The company can point to $358 million in projected annual staking revenue when it talks to investors, something no bitcoin treasury can match. That revenue stream is also what lets Bitmine describe the 5% goal as a business rather than a trade.
How the buying gets funded
The weekly cadence has become a market signal in its own right. Traders watch the Monday disclosures for confirmation that treasury demand continues, and this week’s print keeps the streak intact at 65 consecutive weeks of purchases.
But the money has to come from somewhere. Bitmine funds its buys through equity and preferred stock sales, so the program runs on its ability to issue shares at premiums to net asset value. When the stock trades above the value of its underlying ETH, issuing shares is accretive to existing holders and the machine keeps running. When the premium fades, the math flips and every new share sold dilutes more than it buys.
That dynamic is already showing up across the sector. CryptoSlate reported this week that treasury premiums have narrowed industry-wide, forcing companies like Bitmine to weigh share buybacks and staking yield against further accumulation. The company’s next capital choice is harder than the ones before it.
There is also concentration risk on the other side of the ledger. Bitmine holds stakes in Eightco Holdings and Beast Industries alongside its ETH, so the reported $17.2 billion treasury number includes assets that are neither Ether nor cash. Investors tracking the accumulation streak need to separate the headline from the underlying position.
What comes next
At roughly 17,000 ETH a week, the last 104,000 tokens take about six weeks to accumulate, putting the 5% crossing sometime in mid-November if the pace holds and the funding stays open. Lee has told investors the company expects institutions that are still underweight crypto to add exposure before the end of the year, which would help both the share price and the accumulation math.
For now the streak is the story. One company, listed in New York, has bought Ether in 65 straight weeks and now owns close to one of every twenty tokens in circulation, with more than 5 million of them staked. Whether that ends at 5% or keeps going is the question the next several Monday updates will answer.