Bitmine Immersion Technologies has moved another step closer to its goal of owning 5% of the Ethereum supply after buying another 32,447 ETH, worth roughly $81 million, last week.

The company said Monday that it held 5,847,611 ETH, worth around $15 billion, as of August 23. Bitmine says its 5.85 million ETH represents about 4.8% of the supply. With Ethereum's supply at approximately 120.7 million tokens, the 5% mark is about 6.04 million ETH—leaving Bitmine roughly 187,000 ETH short of its goal.

The latest purchase comes amid renewed interest and excitement in the crypto market, with the price of Ethereum exploding over the last week. ETH is up a whopping 31.5% in the last seven days, outperforming even Bitcoin's impressive gains of nearly 24% in the same period. ETH is currently trading for just under $2,500, up almost 3% in the last day alone.

Sentiment around the asset has shifted on prediction markets as well. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt's parent company Dastan, traders are now pricing in 64% odds that Ethereum hits $3K before dropping down to $1.5K. Those odds were reversed less than a week ago, with odds as high as 74% on the bearish outcome before the market turned.

Bitmine's ETH accumulation began last summer, after the former Bitcoin mining company pivoted to an Ethereum treasury strategy, named Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee as chairman, and set out to replicate the playbook popularized by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. The company reached roughly 1% of Ethereum's supply that August and 2% in September. Its holdings passed 4.66 million ETH in March 2026 and 5.2 million in May. Bitmine is now the largest corporate holder of ETH, part of a wave of public companies—including SharpLink Gaming and Bit Digital—that built their own ETH treasuries in 2025. Five percent is Bitmine's own target, and crossing that threshold would not trigger a change to Ethereum or grant Bitmine control over transactions, upgrades, or governance.

The purchase came as ETH recorded its largest weekly gain in more than a year, rising roughly 31% since August 19, 2026.

"This is the largest weekly gain since May 2025, prior to that it was July 2021," Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said in a statement. "In those two precedent instances, this weekly gain of >30% signaled a launch point for a larger move in ETH." (Disclosure: Tom Lee is an investor in Dastan, Decrypt's parent company.)

Lee pointed to easing financial conditions, White House support for crypto, and Treasury purchases of long-term bonds that had improved investors' appetite for risk.

With 87% of its ETH already staked—locked to help secure the Ethereum network in exchange for rewards—Bitmine has placed much of its supply outside active markets. The company said it has staked 5,067,309 ETH, equal to 87% of its holdings, and projects $330 million in annual staking revenue. It has not said whether it will stop buying at 5%.

Lee said in May that Bitmine would slow its buying to avoid reaching 5% too quickly. Purchases continued, but at an uneven pace, funded largely through sales of the company's own shares. By late July, its holdings had reached 5.79 million ETH.

For investors in BMNR, whose shares trade on the NYSE American exchange, 5% would bring more staking revenue if Ethereum performs well—and greater exposure to falling ETH prices, custody failures, financing costs, and regulatory changes if it does not.