U.S. corporation Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) increased the value of its crypto reserves by $2.2 billion in a single day amid a major Ethereum rally that pushed the altcoin above $2,200, according to CryptoQuant's analyst Maartunn.
The company emerged as the main institutional beneficiary of the current market momentum.
According to Bitmine's latest operational report, its balance sheet holds 5.815 million $ETH — nearly 4.8% of the cryptocurrency's entire circulating supply. At the beginning of the week, this portfolio was valued at $11 billion, but following a 20% price increase, its value reached $13.2 billion.
Bitmine is not simply holding the coins: the company has been purchasing $ETH every week for more than a year and has already staked 87% of its reserves. This generates approximately $250 million in fixed annual income.
At the same time, management is aggressively buying back the company's own shares on the stock market.
However, according to the latest data from DropsTab, the company's overall portfolio is still sitting on a global unrealized loss of $6.09 billion, or 31.25%. This is because a total of $19.49 billion has been invested in the position at an average purchase price of $3,357.63 per $ETH.
Tom Lee: Ethereum will become the operating system for AI agents
Bitmine chairman and Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee argues that Ethereum's breakout from its multiyear downtrend against Bitcoin, above the 0.02994 level, represents a fundamental shift. In his view, Wall Street has finally stopped treating $ETH as a speculative asset and has begun pricing in its utility value.
Lee connects the blockchain's future with the development of artificial intelligence and robotics. The software used by humanoid robots, which are already breaking physical records — including Chinese models capable of running faster than 12 meters per second — is rapidly merging into a cloud-based "collective intelligence."
In this ecosystem, Ethereum smart contracts will become the underlying operating system, which is why he sees $ETH "as an important downstream AI story."
"Crypto is more relevant today given the rapidly increasing capabilities of AI and robotics. We agree with BlackRock's take and see growing use cases. In our view, Ethereum ($ETH) will be the most important L1," Tom Lee explains.
Fundstrat concludes that while investment giant BlackRock views Bitcoin as passive "digital gold" for protection against inflation, Ethereum is becoming "digital oil" — the settlement layer on which the entire infrastructure of the future AI economy will operate.