Bitmine scoops additional ETH, receives approval to increase authorized shares

Ethereum (ETH) treasury firm Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) increased its stash to 4.2 million ETH after acquiring 35,628 ETH last week. The firm's holdings represent 3.48% of the total ETH circulation, just 1.52% shy of its goal to acquire 5% of the supply.

During the period, the Nevada-based firm also staked an additional 581,920 ETH. It has now staked a total of 1.83 million ETH across three staking providers, a fraction of its 4.2 million ETH balance.

In a statement on Monday, Bitmine Chairman Thomas Lee noted that the ETH/BTC ratio has been rising since mid-October — although Binance data shows the ratio has been range-bound during that period — as investors recognize that Wall Street is leveraging Ethereum for tokenization and other digital finance use cases.

On Monday, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) shared a list of top financial institutions building on Ethereum, including BlackRock, JPMorgan, Robinhood and several others.

Bitmine also reported holdings of 193 Bitcoin (BTC), a $22 million stake in Eightco Holdings (ORBS) and total cash of $979 million.

Shareholders approve proposal to increase authorized shares

Meanwhile, the company revealed that all four of its proposals passed during its shareholders' vote last week. The company had sought to elect a board of directors, increase authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion, launch an omnibus incentive plan, and activate a performance-based compensation plan for its Chairman, Thomas Lee.

"We view the fact that 81% of votes cast favored increasing authorized shares, Proposal 2, as a message from Bitmine stockholders that they understand our accretive ETH accumulation strategy," said Lee. "As we have stated multiple times, we have not, nor intend to, sell shares below mNAV."

Lee earlier stated that a failure to pass the proposal would have hampered Bitmine's ability to continue its steady accumulation of ETH.

Bitmine has also stretched its reach beyond the traditional crypto space. Last week, it invested $200 million into Beast Industries, betting on Jimmy Donaldson's, aka MrBeast, content reach among internet users across different generations.

"Because MrBeast and Beast Industries are privately held, investors may not be aware of the tremendous reach of MrBeast," noted Lee.

Bitmine shares have dropped 8% at the time of publication on Tuesday as geopolitical tensions weigh on the crypto market.