Bitmine Accumulates 4.87 Million ETH; Tom Lee Labels Ethereum a ‘Wartime Store of Value’
Bitmine Accumulates 4.87 Million ETH as Tom Lee Outlines Macro Hedge Thesis
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, an institutional digital asset firm that recently uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange, has expanded its Ether (ETH) reserves to 4.87 million tokens. The milestone, reported on April 13, 2026, brings the firm’s total cash, crypto, and venture holdings to $11.8 billion. The accumulation points to a deliberate treasury strategy focused heavily on the Ethereum network.
Supply Concentration and Yield Generation
The company acquired 71,524 ETH last week, maintaining an elevated purchase pace. Bitmine now holds 4.04% of the total 120.7 million circulating Ethereum supply. The firm’s stated objective is to eventually acquire 5% of the total global supply.
Bitmine is actively utilizing these reserves for yield generation rather than letting them sit idle. The firm has staked 3.33 million ether, representing 68% of its total ETH holdings, through its newly launched institutional platform, the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN). At an estimated 2.89% yield, this staking operation generates approximately $212 million in annualized revenue.
The Macroeconomic Rationale
Alongside the supply data, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee offered a specific macroeconomic rationale for the accumulation. Lee explicitly called Ether “the wartime store of value.” This framing directly challenges the historical consensus that traditionally reserved the store-of-value designation exclusively for Bitcoin or physical commodities like gold.
Lee cited the ongoing, seven-week conflict in Iran as the primary driver of global risk markets. “ETH is now the best-performing asset since the start of the war, with a 17.4% gain and outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,830 basis points,” Lee stated. “And we believe ETH beating gold by 2,743 basis points demonstrates ETH is the wartime store of value.”
According to Lee, Ethereum also benefits from structural demand outside of geopolitical hedging. He pointed to the “dual tailwinds of Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain and from agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains.”
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