BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) surged 13% to $20.72 on Wednesday as Bitcoin climbed back above $68,000 for the first time in months, a move that pulled crypto-linked stocks sharply higher across the board.

Bitcoin traded at $68,500, up 6% over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum changed hands at $2,089. The broader cryptocurrency rally flowed through to equities, lifting Strategy (MSTR) 13% to $104.72 and Coinbase (COIN) 11% to $162.88.

No single company catalyst triggered the rally. Instead, the move appears to represent a rebound off summer lows for the sector, possibly supported by the SEC's proposed "Regulation Crypto Assets" framework — a proposal aimed at creating clearer federal rules for issuing and trading digital assets, the kind of regulatory clarity the industry has sought for years.

A Massive Ethereum Position

BitMine is sitting on a massive Ethereum position. The company holds 5.82 million ETH tokens, equal to 4.8% of the total global Ethereum supply, with 5.07 million of those tokens currently staked. Staking lets that portion of the treasury earn network rewards on holdings that would otherwise sit idle — a structural difference from Bitcoin treasury strategies, which hold an asset with no built-in yield mechanism.

BitMine assembled that position by adapting the corporate crypto-treasury playbook that Strategy popularized with Bitcoin, directing it at Ethereum instead.

Management said Monday that the company's combined treasury of crypto, cash, and strategic investments has now reached $11.4 billion. BitMine says it is 96% of the way toward its stated goal of holding 5% of all ETH in circulation.

Chairman Tom Lee and the Ethereum Bet

Chairman Tom Lee — co-founder of research firm Fundstrat and one of Wall Street's most widely followed market strategists — holds that position directly, making him one of Ethereum's largest institutional stakeholders. Lee posted Wednesday that crypto is "more relevant today given the rapidly increasing capabilities of AI and robotics," and he called Ethereum "the most important L1."

His comments came in response to a BlackRock report titled "Re-Underwriting Bitcoin," which focused on Bitcoin's 50% drop from its October 2025 high. The report comes from BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager and the issuer of the largest spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. That report makes no mention of Ethereum, robotics, or AI, meaning Lee's framing goes beyond what the source material actually says.

Buybacks Running Alongside Accumulation

Alongside its token accumulation, BitMine has been buying back its own stock. The company repurchased 1.7 million common shares last week alone, bringing the total repurchased under its $4 billion buyback program to more than 20.8 million shares.

That pace of repurchases signals that management is trying to support the stock price even as the company continues to build out its crypto treasury.

A Sharp Rally in a Rough Year

Despite Wednesday's jump, BMNR is still down 33% year to date through Tuesday's close. Strategy is down 39% over the same stretch, while Coinbase has fallen roughly 35%.

Wednesday's rally was the sharpest one-day move for these crypto proxies all summer, but it comes inside what has been a rough 2026 for the entire sector.

For BitMine, the milestones ahead are the ones management has set itself: closing the final stretch to the 5% ETH target and working through the remaining capacity of the $4 billion buyback authorization.

On the session, BMNR traded in a day range of $18.37 to $20.89, with volume hitting 38.41 million shares.

Source: CoinCentral