Tom Lee's Ethereum Treasury BitMine Approves $1 Billion Stock Buyback

BitMine Immersion Technologies has approved an up to $1 billion stock repurchase to support its Ethereum treasury pivot, the company announced Tuesday,

The buyback, which is open-ended and allows periodic repurchases of BitMine’s common stock.

Texas-based BitMine had 121,739,533 fully diluted common shares outstanding as of July 28, according to the company’s press release.

BitMine’s goal is to stake and hold 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee reiterated Tuesday in a statement. The company is already the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, according to publicly available data. The treasury firm holds 625,000 Ethereum purchased at an average price of $3,755 $ETH per token, its data shows. Those holdings are worth about $2.4 billion as of writing time.

"In our road to achieving 'the alchemy of 5%' of $ETH, there may be times when the best expected return of our capital is to acquire our own shares," Lee said.

Ethereum’s market capitalization was roughly $458.9 billion as of writing time.

BitMine’s stock repurchase plan comes just a few weeks after the company began pursuing an aggressive corporate strategy centered on acquiring and holding Ethereum.

BitMine is one of several companies that has turned to adding Ethereum to its coffers to lift its stock price. With its latest Ethereum purchases, online gambling marketer SharpLink has amassed about $1.4 billion in $ETH, while BitDigital, The Ether Machine and GameSquare are also embracing the cryptocurrency.

The emergence of $ETH-based treasuries has been closely intertwined with Ethereum’s price gains in recent weeks. The token had languished for more than a year compared to the big gains of other blue-chip cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, which hit a record high earlier this month.

Ethereum was recently trading at $3,747, down 0.9% over the past 24 hours and about 13% year-to-date, according to data provider CoinGecko. The token has notched most of its 2025 gains during the past few weeks, gaining 55% over the past month.

BitMine stock is closed at $32, down almost 9% and 5.5% over the past month, according to Yahoo Finance data, although it is up a whopping 357% since January 1.