Bitmine Immersion Technologies has accumulated 6 million ether, worth roughly $16.3 billion at current prices, giving the company a stake equivalent to 4.9% of the circulating supply. The position makes the firm one of the largest single holders of the token and turns its common stock into a de facto leveraged bet on ether's price.

The strategy mirrors Strategy's Bitcoin playbook

Bitmine began its ether accumulation in mid-2025, following the template Strategy established with bitcoin starting in 2020. The company appointed market strategist Tom Lee as board chair. In a recent statement Lee said a crypto bull market began in late June and that institutions remain underweight the asset class, with positioning likely to increase in the final months of 2026. He cited ether's role as the primary settlement layer for stablecoins, which recorded $10.9 trillion in adjusted transaction volume in 2025 according to Bessemer Ventures.

Valuation reduces to net asset value

The company's market capitalization sits slightly below the $16.3 billion value of its ether holdings. Bitmine also held roughly $340 million in cash at the end of May. Revenue for the nine months ended May was about $60 million, while the company reported a per-share loss of $20.50 driven largely by unrealized losses on its digital-asset portfolio. With revenue negligible relative to market cap, the stock trades almost entirely as a proxy for ether.

Preferred shares fund the buying

Bitmine has financed part of its accumulation through a perpetual preferred issue yielding 9.5%. The shares are cumulative and rank above common equity but below debt. Proceeds from the issuance were used to purchase additional ether, creating a circular dynamic where the cost of capital is fixed in dollars while the asset acquired is priced in ether.

What to watch

The GENIUS Act, if passed, could accelerate stablecoin adoption and benefit ether as the dominant settlement network. For shareholders, the key metric is whether the stock trades at a premium or discount to the net asset value of the underlying ether, a gap that has historically widened and narrowed with sentiment rather than fundamentals.