Bitcoin Ether Holdings reached 4.6M ETH, about 3.8% of the supply
Bitmine Immersion Technologies has accelerated the pace of Ether purchases in recent weeks, said Chairman Tom Lee, following the company's free purchase of 5,000 ETH directly from the Ethereum Foundation.
Li Bitmin has added 60,999 Ether (ETH) in the last week, which is a recent weekly average of 45,000 to 50,000 ETH.
The purchases bring the company's publicly traded Ethereum treasury to 4.596 million ETH, giving Bitmine control of 3.81 percent of the token's total supply. The company said its combined crypto holdings, cash and other investments total around $11.5 billion.
Bitmin said that 3,040,515 ETH, 66% of its holdings, are currently held in shares, worth approximately $6.6 billion at an Ether price of $2,185.
The company says it generates about $180 million in annual revenue. It plans to expand its share through the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), which is expected to launch in the coming months.
The purchase of 5,000 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation is set up to support the Foundation's work without selling Ether on the open market.
Shares of Bitmine (BMNR) closed Monday up 14 percent to trade at $23.39, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Today's Ethereum Treasury announcement coincides with the world's largest bitcoin treasury strategy announcing that it has purchased 22,337 BTC for $1.57 billion, bringing its total holdings to over 760,000 bitcoins.
Related: Three Ethereum Indicators Suggest $2.8K Is the Next ETH Price Target
Corporate treasuries control more than 5% of Ether's supply.
Although bitumen continues to rapidly expand its position, public companies holding ether have significantly reduced their holdings over the past month.
Data from CoinGecko shows that out of the 20 largest corporate ether holdings, only four companies have increased their holdings in the past 30 days. Bitmin added 269,824 ETH during that period, far more than Sharplink, which added 3,859 ETH and Eightco added 11,068 ETH.
Eightco raised $125 million last week to expand investments in blockchain and artificial intelligence. Bitcoin led the round with a $75 million investment, while ARK Invest and Paymentward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, invested $25 million each. As part of the deal, Bitmine's chairman Lee joined the board of ITCO.
The market has 30 public entities in seven countries with a collective market capitalization of $6.6 million worth an estimated $15.4 billion, which is about 5.47% of Ether's total supply, according to CoinGecko.
At the time of writing, Ether was trading around $2,342, up nearly 11% over the past 24 hours, down 21% year-to-date. The cryptocurrency currently has a market capitalization of around $282 billion and around 120.7 million ETH in circulation.
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