SummaryBitmine bought 53,501 ETH last week, worth about $131.3 million at Monday’s ether price of $2,455.The purchase lifted its holdings to 5.90 million ETH, or about 4.9% of Ethereum’s supply, putting its 5% target within reach.Chairman Tom Lee said ether has outperformed the S&P 500 this quarter, which he expects could draw more institutional demand.Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR$23.96 ramped up its ether purchases for a second straight week, buying 53,501 ether ETH$2,452.14 as Chairman Tom Lee pointed to the cryptocurrency’s strong third-quarter performance could pull in institutional investors.The purchase, worth about $131.3 million at Monday’s ether price of $2,455, followed the previous week’s 32,447 ETH haul and lifted Bitmine’s holdings to 5,901,112 ETH. The stash is worth roughly $14.5 billion at current prices.The pickup marks a shift from earlier this summer, when Bitmine slowed its accumulation as it approached its self-imposed goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s supply. Weekly purchases fell below 10,000 ETH several times in July and August.Bitmine now owns about 4.9% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million token supply. At the current supply level, the 5% threshold is roughly 6.04 million ETH, leaving the company about 134,000 tokens short.Strong start of Q3The renewed buying comes after a strong quarter for crypto markets. Ether rallied 55% so far in August, while bitcoin advanced 34%, comfortably outperforming U.S. stock indexes.“We believe this sets the stage for institutions to add to their crypto holdings given the substantial outperformance of crypto versus other macro assets in 3Q so far,” Lee said.Lee also pointed to a potential U.S. market-structure bill vote in September and renewed crypto demand from Korean investors as possible catalysts for the rest of the year. He expects tokenization and the use of blockchains by AI agents to support Ethereum over a longer horizon.Bitmine has now bought ETH for 65 consecutive weeks since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025.The company has also staked about 5.07 million ETH, or 86% of its holdings. It projects roughly $335 million in annualized staking revenue at current yields.Related AssetsRelated Stocks