BitMine Stakes 83% of Its ETH and Still Buys More—Tom Lee Calls It "Crypto Spring" 🥶

BitMine Immersion Technologies added 52,203 ETH worth $92 million last week, pushing the publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm's holdings to 5,672,956 ETH valued at approximately $10 billion, or 4.7% of the asset's circulating supply. The firm also holds 205 Bitcoin worth around $13.3 million. Chairman Tom Lee framed the accumulation in optimistic terms, stating, "The best years for crypto remain ahead, in our view. Tokenization and the rapid progress in AI are expected to drive exponential demand growth for blockchain and decentralized crypto." Lee, who is an investor in Dastan, Decrypt's parent company, also addressed concerns about the Ethereum Foundation's ability to fund future network upgrades, writing, "In my opinion, zero chance of this 'crisis' happening for $ETH. Zero. Funding secured." He described the current market phase as the early stage of a fresh bullish cycle he called the "crypto spring" and reiterated the company's objective to reach the "alchemy of 5%" of total ETH supply by 2026.

The latest purchases coincided with the start of trading for BitMine's dividend-paying preferred equity offering, ticker BMNP, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last week after the firm priced and completed the offering earlier this month, raising around $274 million in proceeds earmarked for additional Ethereum acquisitions and staking infrastructure. BMNP opened at $85 per share and was recently changing hands at $88.34, up roughly 1.7% in early Monday trading. BitMine's common stock, BMNR, was up 0.4% on Monday, recently priced at $16.22, though it remains nearly 90% below its 52-week high of $161.

BitMine now stakes more than 4.7 million ETH—approximately 83% of its total holdings—through its Made in America Validator Network, with 4,718,677 ETH staked at an average price of $1,733 per coin. Staking APY on Ethereum currently ranges between 1.7% and 3.2%. According to Lee, once the firm completes staking of its full treasury, it projects roughly $268 million in revenue on an annualized basis, a figure that could be used in part to service BMNP's dividend, distinguishing BitMine's approach from Strategy's STRC preferred equity offering, which has fallen more than 10% from its $100 par value amid investor scrutiny over dividend funding.

Ethereum traded around $1,752 on Monday, up 1.6% over 24 hours but down 64% from its August high of $4,946 and roughly 65% below its all-time peak. Spot ETH ETFs recorded $66.1 million in outflows on June 22, and CoinGlass data shows the OI-Weighted Funding Rate for Ethereum has remained largely positive, indicating traders are still primarily positioned long. Liquidation clusters are concentrated around the $1,900 and $1,600 levels. Bitcoin changed hands near $64,700 on Monday, up 0.8% on the day but about 13% lower over the past month and nearly 50% below its October record of $126,080, per CoinGecko data, as analysts cited by CoinShares described crypto as having proven "more resilient than anticipated" following the hawkish debut of new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh.