BitMine Immersion significantly expands Ethereum holdings

The Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion made a significant purchase of Ethereum last week, bringing its total holdings to 2.42 million ETH. This move follows the company’s largest ever Ethereum acquisition in September. Despite announcing this purchase and a new share placement, the stock price fell during the trading day. Since May, BitMine has shifted away from solely focusing on Bitcoin mining and is increasingly concentrating on acquiring Ethereum. The company now holds over 10 billion USD in the second-largest digital cryptocurrency by market capitalization, which amounts to around 2% of the total supply. With this holding, BitMine possesses the largest Ethereum reserve of all publicly traded companies and the second-largest crypto reserve overall, behind MicroStrategy's Bitcoin dominance with 72 billion USD in BTC. In a Monday announcement, BitMine also disclosed holding 192 Bitcoins valued at 21.6 million USD and liquid funds of 345 million USD. Additionally, the company has an investment of 175 million USD in the crypto treasury Eightco, totaling 11.4 billion USD on the balance sheet. The BitMine stock (BMNR) was trading almost 10% lower on Monday at a price of 55.30 USD, yet it has risen over 3% in the last month, based on Yahoo Finance data. Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine and Managing Partner of Fundstrat Global Advisors, stated that BitMine's ETH holdings have now exceeded 2% of the supply, as part of the ambitious goal to reach 5% of the ETH supply. He emphasized, "We continue to believe that Ethereum represents one of the largest macroeconomic bets of the next 10 to 15 years." On Monday, BitMine also announced that an agreement had been reached over the sale of shares worth 365.2 million USD to an undisclosed institutional investor. The sale is expected to close on Tuesday. Since May, BitMine has been actively working to take on debt and raise capital to acquire Ethereum. Lee, the architect behind BitMine’s ETH accumulation strategy, has long been optimistic about Bitcoin, but noted in June that Ethereum is gaining significance and could become the next "Bitcoin," as institutional investors show increasing interest in the digital currency and its network. Ethereum recently traded at just under 4,180 USD per coin, after losing nearly 7% within 24 hours. Serving as the network behind the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum acts as a platform for developers to create decentralized applications and issue tokens. Lee views the growing impact of stablecoins, heavily used on Ethereum, as an indication of the network’s utility. Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July, creating a regulatory framework for the issuance of assets in the US. Numerous leading companies and banks are working towards issuing digital tokens, hoping to make payments more efficient and seamless.