Why Is BitMine Still Buying Ether?
BitMine Immersion Technologies continued expanding its Ether holdings last week, adding 76,881 ETH even as the second-largest digital asset remained under pressure during a prolonged market downturn.
The crypto treasury company said Monday that the latest purchases brought its total holdings to 5,620,754 ETH, acquired at an average price of $1,718. The buying came during a volatile week in which Ether briefly fell below $1,600, giving BitMine a chance to reduce its average cost basis while continuing a strategy that has remained active regardless of short-term price action.
At current prices, BitMine’s Ether portfolio is worth roughly $10.2 billion. The company is still sitting on a large unrealized loss of nearly $9 billion, based on market data. Ether was trading around $1,843.69 at last look Monday.
The purchases move BitMine closer to its stated goal of owning 5% of Ether’s total circulating supply. Ethereum has roughly 120.68 million tokens in circulation, and BitMine now controls about 4.66% of all ETH. That makes the company one of the largest corporate holders of the asset and one of the clearest examples of the crypto treasury model being tested by a bear market.
How Does Staking Change The Treasury Strategy?
BitMine’s strategy is not limited to holding Ether on its balance sheet. The company has staked more than 4.1 million ETH, worth roughly $8.1 billion at current prices. Staking allows the company to earn protocol rewards by helping secure the Ethereum network, creating a recurring yield stream while the underlying asset remains under pressure.
That yield matters because it gives BitMine a way to generate return from its Ether position without selling into weakness. For a company with a large unrealized loss, staking income can help offset part of the carrying cost of the strategy and support the case for continued accumulation.
But staking does not remove price risk. The value of rewards is still tied to Ether’s market price, and a large treasury position can lose value faster than staking yield can compensate during a sustained decline. The model works best when the company has enough balance sheet flexibility to tolerate volatility and enough confidence that Ethereum’s long-term network value will recover.
BitMine’s latest purchase therefore shows both sides of the strategy. The company is using lower prices to build toward a supply ownership target, while relying on staking to create a yield layer. At the same time, its unrealized losses show how exposed crypto treasury firms remain when the market turns against their core asset.
Investor Takeaway
BitMine’s Ether strategy is a high-conviction balance sheet trade. Staking provides recurring yield, but the company’s exposure remains dominated by ETH price movement, supply concentration, and investor confidence in Ethereum’s long-term economics.
Why Are Ether ETFs Adding Pressure?
The broader market backdrop has weakened for Ethereum-linked assets. Spot Ether exchange-traded funds recorded 4 consecutive days of net outflows last week, with selling pressure persisting since early May and daily net outflows exceeding $60 million on several occasions.
ETF outflows matter because they reflect weaker regulated demand for Ether exposure at the same time corporate treasury holders are already under mark-to-market pressure. When ETF buyers step back, treasury companies such as BitMine have fewer visible demand channels supporting the asset’s price.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF remains the largest US-traded Ether ETF, with $4.75 billion in net assets. The fund holds 2.36% of Ether’s circulating supply, giving it significant market relevance even as flows turn negative.
The pressure on Ether ETFs also complicates the treasury narrative. Corporate accumulation can support confidence when markets are rising, but in a downturn, investors tend to focus more on liquidity, unrealized losses, and whether companies are increasing exposure faster than the market can absorb.
What Are Ethereum’s Structural Risks?
Ethereum’s challenges extend beyond price weakness. The network’s layer-2 scaling strategy has come under renewed scrutiny as more activity moves away from the mainnet to faster and cheaper secondary networks.
Layer-2 growth helps Ethereum compete on transaction costs and scalability, but it can also reduce the amount of transaction-fee revenue captured directly by the mainnet. Lower fee activity can reduce ETH burns, weakening the deflationary dynamics that previously formed a major part of Ethereum’s investment case.
Internal changes at the Ethereum Foundation have added another source of uncertainty. At least 9 senior leaders, researchers, and core contributors have departed the nonprofit so far this year, one of the largest waves of talent attrition in its history. The departures have come alongside an organizational overhaul and a renewed community debate over governance, strategic direction, and the foundation’s role in Ethereum’s long-term development.
For BitMine, those questions are central. Its treasury strategy depends not only on Ether’s price recovery, but also on Ethereum maintaining its role as the leading settlement and staking network for decentralized finance. If layer-2 economics, ETF demand, or governance concerns continue to weigh on sentiment, the company’s accumulation strategy may face a longer test.
The latest purchase shows BitMine is still treating the downturn as an opportunity to build supply ownership. The market will judge whether that conviction becomes a strategic advantage or a deeper balance sheet risk if Ethereum’s recovery takes longer than expected.
