Written by: Little Cake

As of August 24, BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) holds 5,847,611 ETH, valued at approximately $14.3 billion, accounting for 4.84% of the total Ethereum supply. They are about 187,000 ETH short of the company's self-imposed 5% target (approximately 6.04 million ETH). At the recent purchase rate of 32,447 ETH per week, this target could be reached in about six weeks.

The chairman of BitMine is Tom Lee, one of Wall Street's most well-known crypto bulls and co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors. He calls this target the "Alchemy of 5%." Since launching the Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025, BitMine has been buying ETH weekly without interruption.

A publicly listed company is about to become one of the largest single holders of tokens in the world's second-largest blockchain network, as well as the largest staker.

From Mining Rig Cooling to ETH Whale

BitMine started as a small company focusing on immersion cooling mining equipment. At the beginning of 2025, after Tom Lee took charge, the company underwent a radical strategic transformation: from selling mining equipment to hoarding Ethereum.

The growth momentum has been very fast.

In August 2025, the holdings reached 1% of the ETH supply, and in September it reached 2%. In September of that year, the company raised $365 million through a new issuance at a price of $70 per share. By March 2026, holdings surpassed 4.66 million ETH, and by May surpassed 5.2 million ETH. In June 2026, the company once again raised $274 million by issuing preferred shares with a 9.5% annual interest rate (code BMNP), priced at $80 per share. Investors included ARK Invest (Cathie Wood), Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and Galaxy Digital.

On June 26, 2026, BitMine was included in the Russell 1000 index of large-cap stocks.

In addition to ETH, BitMine also holds 210 bitcoins, a $180 million equity stake in Beast Industries under MrBeast, an $89 million equity stake in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS), and approximately $308 million in cash and securities. The company classifies Beast and Eightco as "moonshot investments," with total assets of approximately $14.9 billion.

Largest Staker

BitMine does not just hoard coins. It has massively staked the ETH it holds on the Ethereum network.

As of August 23, BitMine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, approximately 87% of its total holdings, valued at about $12.4 billion. The company built a staking platform called MAVAN, initially for its own assets, with plans to open it up to institutional investors and custodians. According to the annualized yield of 2.61% disclosed by BitMine, the annual income from staking is approximately $287 million.

Putting this figure in the context of the entire Ethereum network: Currently, the total staked amount on the Ethereum network is about 42 million ETH, accounting for 34% of the total supply. BitMine's 5.07 million staked ETH accounts for about 12% of the total staked amount on the network. Lido is currently the largest staking service provider, holding about 8.83 million staked ETH, accounting for 20.9% of the staking market. BitMine, as a single company, has reached 57% of Lido's staking size.

Tom Lee proudly stated that BitMine has staked more ETH than any other entity in the world.

What Does 5% Mean?

Holding 5% of the ETH does not grant BitMine any direct control over the Ethereum network, as Ethereum's protocol upgrades are determined through the EIP process and rough consensus among core developers, unaffected by token holdings. Owning ETH does not equate to having voting rights. Ethereum also does not have an on-chain governance mechanism.

However, a 12% share of the entire network's staking is not a number to be overlooked.

The PoS consensus of Ethereum relies on a broad distribution of validators to maintain network security and resistance to censorship. Currently, there is considerable controversy in the community over Lido holding 20% of the staking share, with concerns that excessive concentration in a single entity may pose systemic risks. BitMine's 12% staking share, coupled with its status as a publicly listed company governed by U.S. securities laws, means its staking actions may be influenced by the SEC, CFTC, or other regulatory bodies.

Assuming an extreme scenario: If the U.S. government were to impose some sanctions or compliance requirements on Ethereum (similar to OFAC's sanctions on Tornado Cash), BitMine, as a public company, would have to comply, and the 5.07 million staked ETH it controls represents 12% of the network's consensus weight. If a company is forced to change its validation behavior due to regulatory pressures, the impact is not just on that company, but on the neutrality of the entire network.

This is not a theoretical concern. Lido publicly disagreed with Ethereum's core developers in August 2026 over EIP-8363 (a proposal affecting staking yields). When staking participants become significant enough, it is no longer just a passive stakeholder but a power node in protocol politics.

Two Sides of the Investment Narrative

The investment narrative for BitMine can be understood from two entirely opposite directions.

The bullish logic chain is as follows: The current price of ETH is far below BitMine's purchase average. If the fundamentals of the Ethereum ecosystem improve (acceleration of RWA tokenization, rise in L2 activity, increased inflow of ETH ETF funds), and the ETH price rises above $4,000, BitMine's paper losses will quickly turn into profits. Meanwhile, the annualized staking income of $287 million provides a cash flow floor. After being included in the Russell 1000, passive index fund buying will continue to support the stock price, and the current NAV discount of the stock offers a margin of safety.

The bearish logic chain is also clear: The relative weakness of ETH is not a short-term fluctuation, but a reflection of the market's repricing of Ethereum's role in the AI era. BitMine's entire investment thesis is built on the judgment that "ETH should be more expensive." If ETH oscillates in the range of $2,000 to $3,000 in the long term, the $9.1 billion in unrealized losses will not disappear, the 9.5% preferred share dividends will still need to be paid, and the staking yield (2.6%) is far from covering the financing costs.

The company has no substantial income sources other than ETH, making it a leveraged bet on a single asset, not a business with diversified income streams.

In a statement on August 24, Tom Lee pointed out that ETH rose 30% in the past week, the largest weekly increase since May 2025, and historically, similar magnitude weekly increases usually mark the starting point of larger rallies.

With only 187,000 ETH remaining to reach 5%, at the current price of approximately $460 million. For a company that buys weekly, this number may be crossed before the end of the year. By that time, the crypto industry will face an unprecedented situation: a publicly listed company on the NYSE holding over 5% of the global second-largest blockchain's token supply, staking 12% of the network's consensus weight, while possibly still having tens of billions in unrealized losses on its books.

Whether the "Alchemy of 5%" can turn stone into gold completely depends on the price trend of ETH.