Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) said it currently holds 4.8 million ether coins (ETH), worth about $10.2 billion at current prices, which allows the company to achieve its stated goal of accumulating 5% of the total Ethereum supply.
In a statement on Monday, the company also said its shares would begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 9, off the NYSE American exchange.
Bitmine holds 3.98% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million circulating supply, while Strategy holds 3.8% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply 20 million. Both companies have turned inventory accumulation into a stock market narrative, and both are on a buying spree as prices fall.
Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, said 71,252 ETH were purchased in the past week, the highest buying pace since late December, and he viewed the purchases as a bet that Ethereum is in the “final stages of a mini crypto winter.”
Currently, cryptocurrency and cash holdings total $11.4 billion, including $864 million in cash, 198 Bitcoin, and small positions in Beast Industries and Evenco Holdings.
Bitmine’s model and strategy differ when it comes to staking or depositing tokens to help secure the Ethereum blockchain in exchange for rewards. Of the 4.8 million ETH held, 3.33 million are staked through Mavan, the institutional-grade validator network that the company began operating on Monday.
The staking position is worth approximately $7.1 billion and generates $196 million in annualized staking revenue at a 2.78% yield, providing Bitmine with a recurring revenue stream not found in Strategy’s Bitcoin Vault.
At full deployment, when all of Bitmine’s ETH is staked, the company expects annual staking rewards to reach $282 million.
In the announcement, Lee elaborated on Ethereum’s wartime situation, noting that since the beginning of the conflict in Iran, Ethereum has gained 6.8%, outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,130 basis points and outperforming gold by 1,840 basis points. “ETH is a wartime store of value,” Lee said, a framework that would have been difficult to argue six months ago but now has data to back it up.
Bitmine is currently the 96th most traded stock in the United States, with an average daily trading volume of $987 million, ranking between Schlumberger and Adobe. Investors include ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital and Kraken.
