Bitmine Immersion Technologies has expanded its Ethereum treasury to roughly 4.17 million ETH, a build led by Chairman Tom Lee as the company pursues a larger, equity-backed crypto accumulation strategy. This expansion ties Bitmine’s balance sheet directly to ongoing Ether purchases and a financing model built around share issuance.
The scale matters because it places Bitmine among the largest single corporate Ethereum treasuries, while also linking the strategy to staking activity and capital-markets execution. We are treating this as a corporate treasury program where funding mechanics are inseparable from the crypto thesis.
Treasury snapshot and portfolio composition
As of Jan. 11–12, 2026, Bitmine disclosed a combined crypto-and-cash portfolio valued at about $14.0 billion. The company’s Ether position represented roughly $13 billion of that total, based on an ETH reference price of $3,119.
The same disclosure listed additional assets alongside ETH: 193 Bitcoin, a $23 million equity stake in Eightco Holdings (ORBS), and $988 million in cash reserves. This composition shows the portfolio is overwhelmingly ETH-led, with other holdings functioning as secondary positions and liquidity buffers.
Authorization request and the “5% of supply” objective
Tom Lee is driving an internal target of securing roughly 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, which the company equates to about 6 million ETH. This goal depends on the continuation of an equity-for-Ether approach that requires shareholder support to sustain issuance capacity.
To finance further purchases, Bitmine is asking shareholders to approve a major increase in authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion. The company filed the proposal ahead of a Jan. 15, 2026 annual meeting and expects a shareholder vote on Jan. 14, 2026. The outcome is pivotal because it determines whether Bitmine can maintain the current pace of equity issuance underpinning the accumulation strategy.
Bitmine is also extending its on-chain engagement through staking, with its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN) platform slated for deployment in early 2026. As of Jan. 11, 2026, the company reported about 1,256,083 ETH staked, representing an increase of nearly 600,000 ETH in the preceding week.
The company projects staking revenue using a Composite Ethereum Staking Rate (CESR) of 2.81%, suggesting this could translate into more than $1 million per day in staking revenue at scale. This framing positions staking yield as a meaningful operating lever layered on top of a treasury strategy that is already highly sensitive to ETH price moves.
Critiques of the equity-for-Ether model
Critics have challenged the durability of Bitmine’s approach, particularly the dilution dynamics of heavy issuance. Kerrisdale Capital opened a short on BMNR in an Oct. 8, 2025 report, arguing the model is unsustainable and pointing to roughly $10 billion of new stock issued over a recent three-month span.
Kerrisdale also criticized a $365 million direct offering with warrants, calling it “a discounted giveaway,” and argued that ETH-per-share accretion was slowing as the share count rose. The critique centers on whether shareholders can capture meaningful ETH upside if the denominator expands faster than net ETH accumulation.
Separate social posts in Nov. 2025 flagged roughly $3.7 billion in unrealized losses on Bitmine’s ETH position at that time, highlighting the mark-to-market volatility inherent in a concentrated treasury. This is the clearest reminder that the strategy’s reported performance can swing sharply with ETH pricing, regardless of operational execution.
The near-term focus is the Jan. 14 shareholder vote and the Jan. 15 annual meeting because they determine whether the authorization increase proceeds. If shareholders approve the increase, Bitmine preserves a straightforward path to keep issuing equity and pursuing the 5% supply objective.
If the authorization does not pass, Bitmine may need to slow purchases or explore alternate funding routes, which would stress-test the thesis quickly. Either way, the next phase hinges on whether the treasury-and-staking strategy can scale without compounding investor fatigue from dilution and volatility.