Over the last week, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc., owned by Tom Lee, added 10,399 ETH. This has increased its total Ethereum [ETH] holdings to 5,797,813 ETH, which is approximately $10.9 billion in value.
Additionally, the company owns 209 Bitcoin [BTC], $173 million in cash and marketable securities, and more than $240 million in strategic equity stakes.
That said, by now, Bitmine is by far the biggest corporate holder of Ether, holding 4.8% of the total amount of Ethereum in circulation (120.7 million ETH).
This occurs as Ethereum’s price surged by 1.24% in the past 24 hours to $1,856.54 at the time of writing.
Tom Lee applauds Ethereum’s performance
Adding more weight, Lee cited historical evidence that Bitmine’s stock frequently outperforms Ethereum itself after periods in which Ethereum substantially outperforms the Nasdaq.
In July, ETH outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 2,500 bp (or 25 percentage points). This is the largest outperformance since July 2025, and we believe it is reflective of the strengthening fundamentals of crypto. Last July (2025), ETH rose from $2,375 to $4,057 by the end of August.
Validating his theory, the stock price of BMNR was trading at $17.42 at the time of writing after a hike of 0.81%. However, the year-to-date stock price drop of over 44% raises eyebrows.
Bitmine’s staked ETH and more
Meanwhile, its institutional staking platform, MAVAN (Made in American VAlidator Network), already has about 4.9 million ETH staked, or 85% of its total ETH holdings.
Bitmine estimates that it can make about $247 million in staking revenue annually, with that amount increasing to $291 million if all of its Ethereum is eventually staked. For context, this is based on its current staking yield of 2.67%.
Furthermore, as part of its $4 billion buyback program, the company has bought back 16.1 million shares since the 1st of July, including 4.5 million shares in the last week alone.
This occurs while the Ethereum ETF space recorded $11.9 million in outflows on the 3rd of August. Nevertheless, according to SoSo value data, the month of July saw inflows outpacing outflows totaling $365.17 million.
Is ETH’s staking ecosystem acting as a catalyst?
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s validator queue indicates that, despite cooling from previous peaks, staking demand was strong throughout July and the first part of August.
Although at a slower rate, new validators continued to join the network, as evidenced by the entry queue’s gradual decline from nearly 2.9 million ETH in early July to about 2.5 million ETH by early August. There were only slight spikes in the exit queue, which stayed near zero, indicating that not many validators were opting to unstake.
The historical chart demonstrates that, despite being below the 4 million+ Ethereum peak observed earlier in 2026, the current entry queue is still historically high, indicating strong long-term confidence in Ethereum and ongoing staking demand.
Final Summary
- Bitmine’s Ethereum holdings reach 5,797,813 ETH, with about 4.9 million ETH already staked.
- The Ethereum validator queue further confirms that, despite cooling from previous peaks, staking demand was strong.