tl;dr
BitMine Immersion Technologies has approved a $1 billion stock repurchase plan to support its strategic focus on Ethereum. The company aims to stake and hold 5% of Ethereum’s total supply and currently holds 625,000 ETH valued at about $2.4 billion. Chairman Tom Lee stated that share buybacks may be...
BitMine Immersion Technologies has approved a stock repurchase plan of up to $1 billion to back its strategic pivot towards Ethereum, the company announced Tuesday. This open-ended buyback program enables periodic repurchases of BitMine’s common stock, which currently has 121,739,533 fully diluted shares outstanding as of July 28.
BitMine aims to stake and hold 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, a goal reaffirmed by Chairman Tom Lee. The company already holds the position of the largest corporate Ethereum holder, with 625,000 ETH acquired at an average cost of $3,755 per token. These holdings are valued at approximately $2.4 billion at the time of writing.
"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 stated. Ethereum’s market capitalization stands near $458.9 billion, demonstrating the scope of BitMine’s ambitious treasury strategy.
BitMine’s repurchase initiative follows recent corporate moves focused aggressively on acquiring and holding Ethereum, joining peers like SharpLink, BitDigital, The Ether Machine, and GameSquare that are similarly boosting their Ethereum treasuries. SharpLink, for example, holds approximately $1.4 billion worth of ETH.
This rise in ETH-based corporate treasuries coincides with Ethereum’s recent price recovery, which comes after a long period of underperformance relative to other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which peaked earlier this month. Ethereum was trading just under $3,750 per token, down 0.9% over the past day but up 55% over the past month, though still down roughly 13% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, BitMine’s stock performance reflects notable volatility: it closed at $32, down nearly 9% over the last 24 hours and declined 5.5% in the past month, but impressively surged 357% since the start of the year. This dynamic mirrors the evolving narrative of corporations leveraging cryptocurrency exposure to reshape their market value and investment appeal.