Tom Lee’s BitMine Makes Biggest Ethereum Buy Since December

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. 

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. 

Alongside the uplisting, the firm approved a 300% boost to its share buyback program, which now has $4 billion in funds authorized for the repurchase of BMNR shares. Last July, the firm approved a $1 billion program, though it remains unclear if any of the funds have been used to repurchase shares of BMNR to date. 

BitMine shares are down around 63% in the last six months as Ethereum has fallen more than 55% from its August all-time high of $4,946.