Tom Lee-led Bitmine Immersion Technologies has moved closer to its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply after buying another 9,926 ETH last week. The latest purchase takes Bitmine’s holdings to about 5.82 million ETH, or roughly 4.8% of Ethereum’s supply. The company’s holdings are worth around $11 billion at current prices, but Bitmine is also sitting on more than $8.4 billion in unrealized losses because much of its Ether was bought at higher prices. Despite the losses, the company continues to buy and stake ETH.
Since introducing the approach in June 2025, Bitmine, which is traded under the ticker BMNR, has been gradually increasing its Ethereum treasury. Since the program started, the corporation has now purchased Ether every week, demonstrating that its long-term strategy has not altered despite challenging circumstances facing the cryptocurrency market.
The latest purchase of 9,926 ETH was made during the week ended August 16. With the addition, Bitmine now holds approximately 5.815 million ETH. At an Ether price of around $1,900, those holdings are worth about $11 billion. That puts the company just a short distance from its stated “Alchemy of 5%” target of holding 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.
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BitMine provided its latest holdings update for August 17, 2026$11.4 billion in total crypto + “moonshots”: – 5,815,164 ETH at $1,893 per $ETH (per @coinbase) – 209 Bitcoin (BTC)
– $180 million stake in Beast Industries @MrBeast
– $73 million stake in Eightco…— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH $BMNP (@BitMNR) August 17, 2026
The size of the treasury, however, comes with a significant paper loss. Industry data shows that Bitmine has more than $8.4 billion in unrealized losses on its Ether holdings. These are not realised losses because the company has not sold the assets. The figure mainly reflects the difference between the prices at which Bitmine accumulated ETH and its current market value.
Bitmine is not relying only on a possible recovery in Ether prices. Additionally, the business is staking over 5 million ETH, which is now valued at almost $9.6 billion. Bitmine receives compensation for contributing to the security of the Ethereum network through staking. Chairman Tom Lee has projected annualized returns of nearly $287 million based on a recent seven-day staking yield of roughly 2.61%.
For Lee, the long-term case for Ethereum remains intact. He pointed to the ETH-to-Bitcoin ratio breaking above a multi-year downward trend as a possible sign that investors are beginning to pay more attention to Ethereum’s role in areas such as tokenisation and AI-agent applications. He also expects easier financial conditions to support crypto assets.
Bitmine is making moves beyond its Ether purchases as well. The company bought another 1.7 million shares of its own stock last week. It now owns 20.8 million shares under a previously authorised $4 billion share buyback programme.
The strategy is therefore becoming a high-conviction bet on Ethereum rather than a short-term trade. Bitmine is continuing to accumulate ETH, earn staking rewards and build its treasury despite the large unrealised loss on its holdings.
Its progress towards 5% of Ethereum’s supply is also significant because such a position would give the company considerable exposure to the future performance of the network. Whether that bet pays off will depend heavily on Ether prices, adoption of Ethereum-based applications and the wider crypto market. For now, Bitmine appears prepared to accept substantial short-term volatility in pursuit of its longer-term target.
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