BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) acquired 111,942 ether over the seven days ended May 25, 2026, its largest single-week purchase of the year, bringing total holdings to 5,390,404 ETH — equal to approximately 4.47% of Ethereum's circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens. The company disclosed the figures in a press release on May 26, 2026.
The purchase directly contradicts guidance that BitMine chairman Tom Lee gave earlier this month. Speaking at Consensus 2026 in Miami in early May, Lee had said the firm planned to slow its weekly accumulation pace. One week later, it executed its biggest buy of the year. In the May 26 statement, Lee offered a brief rationale: "We view the recent pullback of ETH to below $2,200 as an attractive opportunity."
The acquisitions were made at prices below $2,200 per ETH; at the $2,134 per-ETH Coinbase reference price cited in the press release, the 111,942 tokens carried a market value of approximately $238.9 million at the time of the announcement.
BitMine's total portfolio — including 5.39 million ETH, 203 BTC, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, a $95 million stake in Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: ORBS), and $444 million in cash — stood at $12.3 billion as of May 25.
Of the 5.39 million ETH held, 4,712,917 are staked — roughly 87% of total holdings. At a 7-day annualized yield of 2.75%, the company projects $276 million in annualized staking revenue. BitMine operates MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network), its own institutional staking infrastructure, with plans to extend it to third-party institutional clients.
The 5% supply threshold — the company calls it the "alchemy of 5%" — is the structural angle worth tracking. Lee said BitMine is "expected to reach the 'alchemy of 5%' sometime in 2026." At current supply figures, 5% of 120.7 million ETH is approximately 6.035 million ETH, meaning the firm needs to acquire roughly another 645,000 tokens. A single public entity controlling that share of a major proof-of-stake network's liquid supply is without clear precedent; the staking implications compound the concentration, since BitMine's validators already represent a material portion of active stakers.
BitMine describes its model as analogous to Strategy Inc.'s Bitcoin treasury approach — accumulate through equity raises, hold long-term, stake for yield. Strategy's reported 818,869 BTC (valued at $64.1 billion at current prices, per BitMine's own comparison) remains the larger position by dollar value, but no ETH treasury comes close to BitMine's scale.