Tom Lee’s BitMine Seizes 3.5% of Ethereum Supply in Massive Treasury Buy of 4.24M ETH

BitMine's Treasury Just Gobbled Up 3.5% of All Ethereum—Here's Why It Matters

Tom Lee's crypto mining giant makes a power play that redefines 'corporate treasury.' Forget buying back shares—BitMine just parked over four million ETH in its vault. That's not a dip-buy; that's a statement.

The Strategic Pivot No One Saw Coming

Mining operations typically hemorrhage cash on energy and hardware. BitMine flips the script. Instead of just digging for digital gold, it's now hoarding the refined product. This move signals a fundamental shift: from pure-play miner to a hybrid asset manager with its own enormous, self-custodied reserve. It bypasses traditional ETFs and funds entirely, cutting out the middleman and taking direct, colossal exposure.

A New Class of Whale Emerges

This isn't a hedge fund or a passive ETF. This is a publicly-traded operator using its balance sheet as a strategic weapon. Acquiring 4.24 million ETH doesn't just move the market—it potentially alters the liquidity landscape. That much supply, effectively locked in a corporate treasury, tightens the float. It's a bullish bet written in blockchain code, one that makes the usual Wall Street 'buy' rating look timid.

The Cynical Take: Because Finance

Let's be real—this is also a masterclass in narrative control. Nothing boosts investor confidence like a multi-billion dollar 'we believe in this' purchase with the company's own money. It's the ultimate skin-in-the-game move, one that would make any traditional CFO blanch but sends crypto Twitter into a frenzy. Sometimes the best marketing is a blockchain transaction everyone can see.

The move redefines corporate strategy for the crypto age. No apologies, no explanations—just a verifiable on-chain stash that makes BitMine a permanent, powerful force in the Ethereum ecosystem. The game just changed.

At the time of disclosure, the position was valued at roughly $12 billion, making BitMine the largest Ethereum treasury in the world and the second-largest crypto treasury overall, behind Strategy Inc., formerly Strategy, which holds more than 700,000 bitcoin.

BitMine Accelerates ETH Accumulation as Prices Slide

The disclosure shows how quickly BitMine’s balance sheet has expanded over the past six months.

Weekly purchase data shared by the company indicates steady accumulation since late October, 2025, with particularly large buying activity in December.

In the week ending January 26 alone, BitMine added just over 40,000 ETH, following purchases of more than 35,000 ETH the prior week and several six-figure ETH buys in December.

Last week the company bought the dip, purchasing $110M worth of Ethereum.

BitMine @BitMNR now controls 3.48% of Ethereum’s total supply after adding $110M in $ETH during the dip, moving closer to its “Alchemy of 5%” goal.#Ethereum #BitMinehttps://t.co/W74cW2b8XH

The pace of accumulation has continued even as ether prices softened, with ETH down double digits over the past month amid broader market volatility.

Ethereum is currently trading at $2,940.44, showing a 2.0% increase over the past hour, which suggests short-term buying pressure returning to the market.

On a 24-hour basis, ETH is up a modest 0.4%, indicating relatively stable price action despite broader market fluctuations.

However, over the past seven days, Ethereum has declined by 8.4%, reaching as low as $2,787.

BitMine’s total crypto, cash, and equity holdings now stand at $12.8 billion, according to the company.

In addition to its Ethereum position, the firm holds 193 bitcoin, $682 million in cash, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and a smaller equity position in Eightco Holdings.

BitMine’s Ethereum Bet Moves Closer to the 5% Mark

The company trades on the NYSE American under the ticker BMNR and was last priced around $28.50, down modestly on the day and slightly lower over the past week.

The Ethereum accumulation is central to BitMine’s stated long-term strategy, as it has publicly set a goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, a target it refers to as the “alchemy of 5%.”

Based on current supply estimates, reaching that level WOULD require roughly 6 million ETH.

At current market prices, closing that gap would require several billion dollars in additional capital.

BitMine Expands Ethereum Staking as Holdings Grow

Beyond holding ether on its balance sheet, BitMine is also expanding its staking operations. As of January 25, the company had staked 2,009,267 ETH, worth about $5.7 billion, representing nearly half of its total holdings.

Using the composite Ethereum staking rate of roughly 2.81%, BitMine estimates that a fully deployed staking strategy could generate about $374 million in annual fees, or more than $1 million per day.

For now, the company relies on external staking providers, but it plans to launch its infrastructure, known as the Made in America Validator Network, or MAVAN, in early 2026.

BitMine @BitMNR plans an early-2026 launch of its MAVAN validator network, aiming to turn a $12B Ether treasury into staking yield at scale.#BitMine #Staking https://t.co/YOlkeNouQu

Chairman Tom Lee has framed the Ethereum strategy as a long-term bet on institutional adoption of blockchain technology.

Speaking after last week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Lee said discussions among policymakers and business leaders increasingly point to the convergence of traditional finance, crypto, and artificial intelligence.

He pointed to Ethereum’s role in tokenization and financial infrastructure projects as evidence that Wall Street is already building on the network.