Bitmine's ether buys are catching up to Strategy's bitcoin accumulation pace

Bitmine bought $234 million of ether in its largest weekly purchase this year, closing in on Strategy's regular bitcoin buys once the firm's STRC-fueled spikes are stripped out.

What to know:

• Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought $234 million of ether last week, bringing its weekly crypto purchases close to the typical $200 million to $300 million that Strategy spends on bitcoin.
• Despite sitting on nearly $8 billion in unrealized losses earlier this year, Bitmine accelerated its purchases, giving ether a Strategy-like corporate buyer steadily absorbing supply regardless of price.
• Bitmine now holds more than 5 million ether, or roughly 4.21% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply, and has staked about 73% of those tokens to generate an estimated $264 million in annualized yield.

A second corporate accumulator of cryptocurrency is starting to look a lot like the first.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the treasury firm chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, bought 101,901 ether (ETH) worth roughly $234 million last week. That's close to the regular weekly purchases from Strategy (MSTR), the Michael Saylor-led bitcoin BTC$76,777.80 digital treasury company, as well-followed crypto trader Luke Martin flagged on X.

Strategy's normal weekly buys are around $200 million to $300 million, once large purchases fueled by at-the-market sales of its perpetual preferred stock STRC are stripped out. The STRC spikes — the massive bursts that show up in mid-January, late February, late March and, most recently, April 21 at $2.54 billion — are the outliers, not the baseline.

Bitmine's purchase was its largest weekly accumulation of 2026, capping a four-month streak of escalating buys that started at roughly $76 million per week in early January. It now holds more than 5 million tokens, or about 4.21% of the second-largest cryptocurrency's circulating supply.

Such a structural development matters because BitMine is now the only major corporate crypto buyer keeping pace alongside Strategy.

Most digital asset treasury companies paused or slowed accumulation through the February price drop that took bitcoin to the mid-$60,000s and ether below $1,900. Strategy itself ended a 13-week bitcoin buying streak in late March before restarting in April.

Lee's framing for the buying pace is that ETH is in the late stages of a "mini-crypto winter" and that a bottom is forming in equity markets. Bitmine pivoted to its current strategy in June 2025 and reached the 5 million ETH milestone in roughly 10 months.

The firm has staked about 73% of those tokens, generating roughly $264 million in annualized revenue from yield. Total crypto and cash holdings sat at $13.3 billion as of early April.

The two firms share a playbook of capital markets activity — Strategy through preferred stock and convertible debt, Bitmine through equity issuance — to purchase crypto assets.

Under pressure

BitMine's strategy was put under pressure in February and early March, when it was sitting on nearly $8 billion in unrealized losses against $16 billion in total purchases.

The firm kept buying. Two months later, ether is up 22% from its February lows, and Bitmine's accumulation pace has not just held, it's accelerated.

Strategy's April 21 purchase of $2.54 billion remains the largest single corporate crypto buy of the year. But Bitmine's $234 million last week is the first time the structural baselines have come within striking distance of each other.

If the pattern holds for another month, ether will have something it has never had before: a Strategy-equivalent corporate buyer absorbing supply each week regardless of price.

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The 175-year-old money-transfer firm also plans to issue a stablecoin-linked card for payments and cash-out options from crypto to local currencies, CEO Devin McGranahan said.

What to know:

• Western Union is on track to launch its U.S. dollar stablecoin USDPT next month, CEO Devin McGranahan said during the firm's earnings call.
• The company will initially use USDPT behind the scenes as an alternative to the SWIFT interbank network, aiming for real-time, around-the-clock settlement with its agents, McGranahan said.

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