Bitmine Buys Another $81M in Ethereum as ETH Outperforms Bitcoin

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In brief Tom Lee's Bitmine bought another 32,447 ETH, worth roughly $81 million, last week.

Bitmine says its 5.85 million ETH represents about 4.8% of the supply.

The price of Ethereum is up more than 30% in the last week.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies is another step closer to its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s supply after buying another 32,447 ETH, worth roughly $81 million, last week.

The company said Monday that it held 5,847,611 ETH, worth around $15 billion as of August 23.

With Ethereum’s supply at approximately 120.7 million tokens, the 5% mark is about 6.04 million ETH. That puts Bitmine roughly 187,000 ETH short of its goal.

Bitmine's latest buy comes amid renewed interest and excitement in the crypto market, with the price of Ethereum exploding over the last week. ETH is up a whopping 31.5% in the last seven days, outperforming even Bitcoin's impressive gains of nearly 24% in the last week. ETH is currently trading for just under $2,500, up almost 3% in the last day alone.

Sentiment around the asset has shifted on prediction markets as well. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt's parent company Dastan, traders are now pricing in 64% odds that Ethereum hits $3K before dropping down to $1.5K. Those odds were reversed less than a week ago, with odds as high as 74% on the bearish outcome before the market turned.

Bitmine’s ETH accumulation began last summer, with the company reaching roughly 1% of Ethereum’s supply that August and 2% in September. Bitmine’s ETH holdings passed 4.66 million ETH in March 2026 and 5.2 million in May.

Five percent is Bitmine’s own target, and crossing that threshold would not trigger a change to Ethereum or grant Bitmine control over transactions, upgrades, or governance.

The purchase came as ETH recorded its largest weekly gain in more than a year, rising roughly 31% since August 19, 2026.

“This is the largest weekly gain since May 2025, prior to that it was July 2021,” Chairman of Bitmine, Tom Lee, said in a statement. “In those two precedent instances, this weekly gain of >30% signaled a launch point for a larger move in ETH.” (Disclosure: Tom Lee is an investor in Dastan, Decrypt’s parent company.)

Lee pointed to easing financial conditions, White House support for crypto, and Treasury purchases of long-term bonds that had improved investors’ appetite for risk.

With 87% of its ETH already staked, Bitmine has placed much of its supply outside active markets. It has not said whether it will stop buying at 5%.

Bitmine said it has staked 5,067,309 ETH, equal to 87% of its holdings, and the company projects $330 million in annual staking revenue.

Chairman Tom Lee said in May that Bitmine would slow its buying to avoid reaching 5% too quickly. Purchases continued, but at an uneven pace. By late July, its holdings had reached 5.79 million ETH.

For BMNR investors, 5% would bring more staking revenue if Ethereum performs well—and greater exposure to falling ETH prices, custody failures, financing costs, and regulatory changes if it does not.