Key Takeaways
- Bitmine bought 32,447 ETH last week, lifting holdings to 5.85M ETH.
- Ethereum’s price surged 30% as Bitmine staked 5.06M ETH, boosting its annualized yield outlook to $330M.
- Bitmine is nearing its 5% ETH target, with staking rewards potentially reaching $381M a year.
Tom Lee Says 30% ETH Weekly Gain Could Signal a Bigger Move
Bitmine Immersion Technologies continued its aggressive accumulation of ether last week, buying 32,447 ETH as the cryptocurrency surged 30% in its biggest weekly advance in more than a year.
The purchase extended a buying streak that has continued every week since Bitmine launched its ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025.
As of Aug. 23, Bitmine held 5,847,611 ETH, valued at roughly $14.3 billion using an ether price of $2,440. That represents about 4.8% of ethereum’s estimated 120.7 million-token supply, putting the company close to its stated goal of owning 5%.
Its broader holdings also include 210 bitcoin, $308 million in cash and marketable securities, and stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.
Lee Sees Ether Rally as Potential Breakout Signal
Ether’s 30% weekly gain was its strongest since May 2025 and, before that, July 2021.
Bitmine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, pointed to those two periods as historical precedents. Ether subsequently gained 170% after the May 2025 move and 167% following the July 2021 surge.
“In those two precedent instances, this weekly gain of >30% signaled a launch point for a larger move in ETH,” Lee said. Past performance, however, offers no guarantee that the pattern will repeat.
Lee said improving financial conditions, Wall Street’s push into tokenization and growing use of blockchains by AI agents could provide additional support.
“We expect easing financial conditions to be a tailwind for crypto,” he said.
He also expects ethereum to gain relative to bitcoin during the next crypto cycle, arguing that previous ETH/BTC rallies were driven by new use cases such as initial coin offerings, NFTs and stablecoins.
Staked ETH Climbs Above 5 Million
Bitmine is also putting a larger share of its treasury to work through staking.
The company said 5,067,309 ETH, worth about $12.4 billion at current prices, was staked as of Aug. 23. That represents roughly 87% of its total ether holdings.
Annualized staking revenue is now projected at about $330 million, based on current activity. Bitmine said its own staking operations recently generated a seven-day annualized yield of 2.67%.
At full scale, including assets deployed through its Made in America Validator Network and external staking partners, Bitmine estimates annual staking rewards could reach about $381 million.
The combination of continued purchases, rising staking income and ether’s sharp price recovery is strengthening Bitmine’s exposure to ethereum on several fronts. For investors, the strategy increasingly resembles not just a treasury bet on ETH prices, but an attempt to turn one of the largest corporate ether holdings into a recurring-yield asset.
