sandmark.com
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a publicly listed digital asset treasury company, has amassed more than 5mn Ether ($ETH) in under a year, with flows from the Ethereum Foundation helping fuel its rapid accumulation and signaling a shift in how the token’s supply is being held and used.
The firm now holds about 4.2% of all $ETH – worth around $12bn at $ETH’s current price of $2,313 – according to a press release issued by the company. Bitmine is now the largest corporate holder of Ether and the second-largest crypto treasury company globally, behind Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).
Moreover, the pace of buying has accelerated in recent weeks, with Bitmine having added more than 417,000 $ETH over the past 30 days, according to CoinGecko data, including two consecutive weekly purchases of over 100,000 $ETH. Ethereum’s total circulating supply is about 120.1 million.
A shift in supply and function
This comes as the Ethereum Foundation confirmed a 10,000 $ETH over-the-counter (OTC) sale to Bitmine in a post on X on 24 Apr. The Foundation said the sale was used to fund core operations, including protocol research and development, ecosystem support, and grants.
Meanwhile on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows additional transfers from foundation-linked wallets to addresses associated with the firm. “The Ethereum Foundation has so far sold $33.51M of $ETH to Bitmine,” Arkham wrote in a post on X earlier today. “Their most recent sale was only 2 days ago. The $ETH Foundation holds $214.8M $ETH.”
The scale and speed of buying, along with these flows, suggest Ether is moving out of active trading and into large institutional holdings.
“This represents a shift in $ETH supply distribution, especially amongst the institutional capital relative to the current large holders of $ETH,” Jake Kennis, Senior Research Analyst at Nansen, told Sandmark. “Outside of the $ETH 2.0 deposit contract, centralized exchanges, and bridges, Bitmine’s roughly 5 million $ETH is large for a single corporate entity.”
Kennis added that the company’s holdings dwarf even those of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which stand at around 224,000 $ETH. “With around 67% of its holdings staked, (generating about $174mn annualized), [Bitmine] is removing substantial supply from circulation while earning yield – a very different dynamic than exchange custody that provides a compelling vehicle for institutions.”
However, the shift is not just about where Ether is moving, but how it may function, according to Daniel Bara, director of the Olympus Association.
“$ETH is moving from disparate active capital into a single, mostly staked treasury layer governed by one balance sheet,” Bara said. “The relevant risk is design risk, the same kind already visible across the BTC treasury landscape, where one company's mark-to-market stress can become a network stress event if forced deleveraging arrives.”
$ETH’s increasing influence
The move also reflects how firms are increasingly treating $ETH not just as an investment, but as a balance sheet asset.
Bitmine has already staked roughly three-quarters of its holdings (about 3.7mn $ETH), representing roughly 10% of the 38.9mn $ETH currently staked on the Ethereum network, according to Beaconchain data.
Investors are also responding, with Bitmine’s stock (NYSE: BMNR) having risen about 20% over the past month. As of April 27 at 5 p.m. UTC, the stock was trading at $21.74, down nearly 2% on the day.
Still, Bitmine’s shares trade below the value of its crypto holdings, with the stock trading at roughly 0.86x net asset value, per CoinGecko data. This suggests some investor caution even as the firm works towards its goal of owning up to 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.