Bitmine adds another $75M in ether, closing on its 5% supply goal as Tom Lee talks up a Q4 institutional rush

Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought 27,562 ether last week, the Tom Lee-chaired company said in a statement dated Monday, Sept. 21, extending an accumulation streak that has run weekly since it pivoted to an ether treasury strategy in mid-2025. The purchase was worth roughly $75 million — about $75.2 million at Monday's ether price of $2,727, per CoinDesk — and lifted the firm's holdings to 5,983,940 ETH, according to CoinDesk's tally of the same disclosure.

That leaves Bitmine holding about 4.9% of ether's circulating supply of roughly 122.1 million ETH, both The Block and CoinDesk report. The company frames this as being 98% of the way toward its self-branded "Alchemy of 5%" supply target, a goal it says it has approached within 15 months of embarking on the strategy. At its recent buying pace, CoinDesk notes, it could cross the 5% line "in the next couple of months."

The numbers behind the balance sheet

Bitmine put its total crypto, cash, marketable securities and other investments at $17.1 billion. That is not all ether. Alongside the ETH stack — worth roughly $16.3 billion at Monday's price — the company said that as of Sept. 20 it also holds 212 BTC ($18.1 million), a $105 million stake in Eightco Holdings, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, and $714 million in total cash and marketable securities, per The Block.

The staking figures came in for particular emphasis. Bitmine said its total staked ether stands at 5,067,309 ETH — about $13.8 billion, or roughly 85% of its holdings, a figure both outlets carry. Lee said the firm's own staking operations generated a 7-day yield of 2.62% on an annualized basis, and that annualized staking revenues are "now projected at $357 million." He offered a larger, conditional number too: "At scale (when Bitmine's ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the projected ETH staking reward would be $421 million on an annualized basis." Note the tense — the $421 million is a projection contingent on full staking, not current revenue.

Bitmine did not disclose the average price it paid for last week's ether, The Block noted; the ~$75 million figure is a mark-to-market estimate at current prices, not a reported cost basis.

Lee's call: bull market on, institutions still to come

The buying update doubled as a market thesis from Lee, who chairs the company. "We believe a crypto bull market is underway, having started in late June, driven by a multitude of factors including the rotation from AI back to crypto, strengthening crypto fundamentals centered around both tokenization and AI and lastly, the ending of the 4-year cycle," he said in the statement carried by The Block.

He leaned heavily on ether's third-quarter run. The Block quotes Lee saying ETH is "outperforming by 6,519bp" quarter-to-date — that is, roughly 65 percentage points. CoinDesk frames the same gap differently, reporting ETH up 76% since the end of June against a 2% gain for the S&P 500. The two framings are consistent in direction; the precise outperformance figure depends on the comparison and window.

Lee's forward call: "Given that institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final 3 months of 2026." He described ETH's Q3 strength as "a prelude to a potentially stronger up move in the 4th quarter of 2026," and pointed to tokenization and blockchain's use in AI as longer-term draws.

Where Bitmine sits in the treasury race

Bitmine remains the largest ether treasury holder, ahead of Joe Lubin's Sharplink and The Ether Machine, which hold approximately 888,938 ETH and 496,712 ETH respectively, according to SER data cited by The Block. Across all crypto, it is the second-largest public treasury company behind Michael Saylor's Strategy, which disclosed its own weekly buy on the same Monday — 950 BTC for about $76 million, bringing it to 846,000 BTC (around $71.9 billion, over 4% of bitcoin's 21 million cap).

CoinDesk reported Bitmine shares (BMNR) were 5.8% higher pre-market, extending an 8% rally the prior Friday, as ether pushed to a fresh high since late January.

Key facts

• Purchase: 27,562 ETH bought last week, $75 million ($75.2M at Monday's $2,727 ether price, per CoinDesk). Average cost not disclosed (The Block).
• Total ether holdings: 5,983,940 ETH — about 4.9% of the ~122.1M circulating supply (The Block, CoinDesk). Company says it is 98% toward its 5% target.
• Total portfolio: $17.1 billion across crypto, cash and other investments, including 212 BTC ($18.1M), a $105M Eightco stake, a $180M Beast Industries stake, and $714M cash and marketable securities as of Sept. 20 (The Block).
• Staking: 5,067,309 ETH staked (~$13.8B, ~85% of holdings); 7-day annualized yield 2.62%; annualized revenue projected at $357M, or $421M "at scale" (The Block; CoinDesk cites ~$357M).
• ETH performance: Lee cites 6,519bp Q3 outperformance (The Block); CoinDesk reports +76% since end-June vs S&P 500 +2%.
• Peers: Sharplink ~888,938 ETH, The Ether Machine 496,712 ETH (SER data via The Block). Strategy holds 846,000 BTC ($71.9B).
• Shares: BMNR up 5.8% pre-market, after an 8% Friday rally (CoinDesk).

The real-world read

The load-bearing point: every bullish claim here comes from Bitmine or its chairman. Tom Lee isn't a neutral strategist offering a market view — he chairs the company that holds roughly $16.3 billion of ether, so "a crypto bull market is underway" and "institutions will substantially increase exposure in Q4" are statements from a man describing why the thing he owns a great deal of should go up. That doesn't make them wrong; it makes them a book being talked. Treat them as an interested party's forecast, not a finding.

The holdings and staking figures are self-reported. Neither The Block nor CoinDesk verified the balance sheet independently; the supply-percentage math is checked against public circulating-supply data, but the 5,983,940 ETH count, the $17.1 billion total and the staking numbers all originate with Bitmine. The peer rankings lean on third-party SER data, which is the more independent input in the story.

Watch the tenses on the staking revenue. The headline-friendly $421 million is explicitly conditional — "at scale," "when fully staked" — while the figure actually being earned reflects a 2.62% annualized yield and a "projected" $357 million. And the "Alchemy of 5%" target is Bitmine's own marketing frame; "98% of the way there" is a milestone the company set for itself and is now grading itself against.

One thing conspicuously absent: the average purchase price. Reporting the market value of a buy rather than its cost basis is standard for these weekly treasury updates, but it means there's no way from this disclosure to judge whether Bitmine is buying well or simply buying.

Finally, the timing rhymes. Bitmine's buy and Strategy's 950-BTC purchase were announced the same Monday, into a tape where ether had just hit a multi-month high and both stocks were rallying — the kind of update that reads as much as investor communication as it does as news.

Opinion, and whose

• Tom Lee (Bitmine chairman): a crypto bull market began in late June, driven by AI-to-crypto rotation, tokenization and the end of the four-year cycle; ETH's Q3 outperformance is a "prelude" to a stronger Q4; institutions, underweight crypto in 2026, will "substantially increase" exposure in the final three months of the year. These are his forecasts, made in a company statement.
• CoinDesk (framing): characterizes ETH's run as a possible catch-up trade for fund managers who favored AI stocks earlier in the year — a restatement of Lee's thesis, attributed to him.

Sources

• The Block (reputable secondary), Sept. 21, 2026 — reported the 27,562 ETH purchase, $17.1B total portfolio, the breakdown of BTC/Eightco/Beast/cash holdings, detailed staking figures and the $421M/$357M projections, Lee's quotes, and peer rankings via SER data. The underlying figures are drawn from Bitmine's own statement — an interested party.
• CoinDesk (reputable secondary), Sept. 21, 2026 — corroborated the purchase and holdings, provided the $2,727 ether price and $75.2M mark, the 76%-vs-2% performance comparison, the BMNR share move, and Lee's institutional-catch-up commentary. Also sourced from Bitmine's disclosure.
• Primary source note: the core data originates in Bitmine's Monday company statement, i.e. an interested party promoting its own strategy; the independent inputs are third-party circulating-supply data and SER's treasury rankings.

This is news, not financial advice; nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset.