BitMine Immersion Technologies bought an additional 10,399 ether last week, lifting its total holdings to 5,797,813.

On Aug. 3, blockchain media outlet Decrypt reported that the purchase kept BitMine as the world's biggest corporate holder of ether and gave it about 4.8 percent of circulating supply.

The latest purchase was worth about $19.5 million. Using an ether price of $1,880 based on CoinGecko, BitMine's ether holdings are worth about $10.9 billion. The company put the value of its total holdings, including other cryptocurrencies, cash and investment assets, at $11.3 billion. BitMine has set a goal of securing 5 percent of total ETH, and its progress is now around 96 percent.

BitMine also continued buying back its own shares alongside the ether purchases. Under its previously approved $4 billion share buyback program, the company repurchased 4.5 million common shares last week. In a statement, board chairman Tom Lee (톰 리) said that after the company shifted to an ether treasury strategy on June 30 last year, ETH often outperformed the Nasdaq 100 on a monthly basis, and BitMine shares then frequently moved to outperform ETH in the following month. He said this was why management still viewed BitMine shares as attractively priced.

BitMine also highlighted the size of its buybacks. Tom Lee said last week's purchase of 4.5 million shares took total common shares repurchased to more than 16 million, and that the program was the largest among ether, bitcoin and crypto digital-asset treasury companies. The company said it has repurchased 16.1 million common shares under the existing $4 billion program since July 1, 2026.

The company's strategy goes beyond simple holding. BitMine said about 4.9 million ETH, or about 85 percent of its total ether holdings, is staked through Mavon, an institutional staking platform. On that basis, the company projected annualised staking revenue of $247 million. It added that the figure could change depending on future network conditions and other assumptions.

BitMine's moves also align with a trend of listed companies' digital-asset treasury strategies broadening from bitcoin to ether. Companies are focusing on holding and staking ether to generate returns while also offering investors a way to gain indirect exposure to digital assets.

BitMine has also aggressively increased its ether weighting this year. In April, it bought 101,627 ETH in what was then its biggest trade of the year and lifted its holdings to close to 5 million. In June, it bought an additional 126,971 ETH worth about $214 million even as the broader crypto market saw selling pressure. Tom Lee at the time described the market weakness as "superficial". In July, it bought a further $49 million worth of ETH and pointed to potential growth in ether demand while citing early demand for Robinhood Chain, Robinhood's Ethereum-based layer 2 network.

Market prices have yet to show a strong direction. Ether has risen about 6 percent over the past 30 days but is still trading around $1,880 per coin. Its market capitalisation is about $255 billion. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders see a higher chance that ETH will fall to $1,500 before it rises to $3,000. The probability of the bearish scenario was put at about 75 percent.

As a result, a key point to watch is whether BitMine's strategy can lift corporate value by combining a rebound in ether prices with staking revenue and share buybacks.