Tom Lee’s BitMine Makes Biggest Ethereum Buy Since December

In brief

• BitMine Immersion Technologies bought 71,524 ETH last week, valued around $157 million.
• The firm now holds more than 4% of the entire circulating ETH supply, as its treasury stretched to nearly 4.88 million ETH.
• Shares of BMNR are up around 1.7% on Monday, close to ETH's own 24-hour gains.

Publicly traded Ethereum treasury BitMine Immersion Technologies last week made its largest weekly purchase of ETH since December, adding 71,524 ETH valued around $157 million. 

The firm now holds 4,874,858 ETH worth more than $10.7 billion as Ethereum changes hands around $2,208 on Monday. The firm holds the largest stockpile of the cryptocurrency.

"BitMine has maintained the increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past four weeks, as our base case ETH is in the final stages of the 'mini-crypto winter,” BitMine chairman Tom Lee said in a statement. (Disclosure: Lee is an investor in Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

Lee’s firm has consistently been adding around $150 million in ETH per week over the last few weeks, boosting the firm’s total holdings to more than 4% of the entire circulating supply of Ethereum. At that mark, it is now more than 80% of the way to its stated goal of holding 5% of the second largest crypto asset’s circulating tokens—something it refers to as the “alchemy of 5%.” 

From its massive tranche of Ethereum, the firm is currently staking 3,334,637 ETH or around $7.3 billion worth. Last month, BitMine launched its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), its own staking network designed to provide institutional-grade infrastructure to ETH staking for itself and other firms seeking ETH rewards. 

When the firm has fully staked all of its Ethereum—or the act of supplying and locking up ETH to help secure the network—it anticipates earning more than $300 million annually in ETH rewards, according to Lee. 

Shares in the firm (BMNR) are up around 1.7% on Monday, recently changing hands around $21.64. Last week, shares in the company were uplisted to the NYSE from the smaller NYSE American exchange.