Bitmine Immersion Technologies has secured 5.98 million ether, giving it about 4.9% of the total supply of Ethereum.

On Sept. 21, blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that the company’s cash and cryptocurrency holdings rose to $17.1 billion. That brings Bitmine close to a 5% holding based on Ethereum’s total circulating supply of 122 million tokens.

Chairman Tom Lee (톰 리) has called the target the “Alchemy of 5%”. Bitmine has said it has bought ether every week since it began its financial strategy on June 30, 2025.

The pace of accumulation is also continuing. Bitmine said it held 5,956,378 ether as of Sept. 14, and bought an additional 27,180 tokens in the prior seven days. It also purchased 28,086 ether the week before, lifting holdings to about 5.93 million. Its balance sheet stood at $15.8 billion at that time, and has now increased to $17.1 billion.

Market moves also aligned. Ether rose about 5 percent over the past 24 hours to $2,772. The gain followed an order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 17 to create a regulatory pathway for tokenised U.S. stocks. Bitmine shares rose about 6 percent to $27.42, while rival SharpLink gained 5 percent and Coinbase rose 6 percent.

Bitmine is also generating income by staking its ether. As of Sept. 14, it staked about 5.07 million tokens, or about 85% of its holdings, through its “Made in America Validator Network” (MAVAN) and partners.

The company estimates that applying a current yield of 2.62% could generate up to $334 million in annual staking income. If it stakes all of its ether, estimated annual income rises to $392 million. It is a strategy to expand holdings through an ether reserve while also securing additional income.

MAVAN is a network Bitmine launched in March this year as the second stage of its financial strategy. At the time, Lee said, “We will build one of the world’s staking and on-chain infrastructure platforms.”

Lee is also placing weight on Ethereum’s medium- to long-term growth potential. He has argued that if tokenisation and agentic artificial intelligence continue to spread, Ethereum could outperform bitcoin in returns over the next few years. He also pointed out that more than $12 billion in tokenised U.S. Treasury products is already being settled on the Ethereum network.

Against this backdrop, Bitmine’s strategy is developing in a direction that simultaneously pushes a higher share of ether holdings, increased staking income and on-chain infrastructure building. Whether it breaks through the 5% threshold and expands staking remains the next point to watch.