Bitmine Adds 27,562 ETH as Ethereum Holdings Near 6 Million

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the world’s largest Ethereum treasury company, purchased another 27,562 ETH last week as Chairman Tom Lee expects institutional demand for crypto to accelerate toward the end of 2026.

The latest Ethereum purchase was worth approximately $75.2 million based on Monday’s ETH price of about $2,727. It increased Bitmine’s total holdings to 5,983,940 ETH, representing roughly 4.9% of Ethereum’s 122.1 million circulating supply.

Bitmine is now approaching its target of owning 5% of the Ethereum supply. The company has maintained a relatively consistent accumulation pace in recent weeks and could reach that goal within the next few months if purchases continue at similar levels.

The firm said it has purchased ETH every week since June 2025, when it shifted toward an Ethereum-focused crypto treasury strategy.

Bitmine has also staked approximately 5 million ETH, equivalent to about 85% of its holdings. At current staking yields, the company estimates the position could generate roughly $357 million in annual staking revenue.

BMNR shares climbed 5.8% in pre-market trading Monday, extending an 8% gain on Friday. The rally came as Ethereum surged overnight to its highest level since late January.

Lee said institutional investors could increase their cryptocurrency exposure during the final three months of 2026 after being relatively underweight the asset class earlier in the year. He attributed some of that underexposure to investors favoring artificial intelligence stocks during the first half.

Ethereum has risen 76% since the end of June, compared with a roughly 2% increase for the S&P 500 over the same period. Lee believes that performance gap could encourage fund managers to reconsider their crypto allocations.

“Given institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final three months of 2026,” Lee said.

Lee also highlighted asset tokenization and increasing blockchain adoption in artificial intelligence as potential long-term drivers of institutional Ethereum demand.