BitMine Immersion Rises After ARK Invest Buys $182 Million in Ethereum Treasury Shares

BitMine Immersion shares were up slightly in Tuesday trading, a day after Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchased $182 million of the Ethereum treasury company’s stock, among the latest evidence of the rising interest in ETH-focused investments.

BitMine Immersion (BMNR) was trading at about $40.77 per share, according to Yahoo Finance, rising more than 3% on the day. The company’s share price has spiked 827% over the past month as the Peter Thiel-backed company has plowed into its Ethereum accumulation strategy.

In a statement, BitMine Chair Tom Lee said the company was “delighted” with ARK’s investment, calling it “an exponential opportunity” as the company looks to achieve its goal of acquiring and staking 5% of all Ethereum.

“Cathie is a pioneer of exponential investing, having made early and profitable investments in Tesla, Bitcoin, and AI,” Lee said, noting her involvement in stablecoin issuer’s Circle’s successful public offering last month.

BitMine is one of a number of firms that have been building ETH treasuries. It holds more than $1 billion of Ethereum after adding $500 million of the asset to its holdings last week. The Las Vegas, Nevada-based company, which had previously focused on Bitcoin mining, kick-started its Ethereum accumulation strategy on June 30 with a $250 million private placement.

BitMine said that it expected to invest 100% of the net proceeds—$177 million—from ARK’s purchase of 4,773,444 shares of BNMR common stock to buy more Ethereum.

ARK added nearly three million shares of BMNR to its ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), and the remainder to its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and ARK Fintech innovation ETF (ARKF) funds. It unloaded about 220,000 shares of Coinbase and 110,000 of Robinhood in its latest portfolio update.

Ethereum was recently trading at about $3,725, down slightly from a seven-month high set Monday, according to crypto markets data provider CoinGecko. Even so, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value has spiked a whopping 45% over the past month. The rise of Ethereum treasuries has played a major role in spurring ETH’s dramatic gains after the digital asset had fallen below $1,600 in March.

On Tuesday, Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming brought its total ETH holdings to over $1.3 billion after a weekend buy, the company announced. Last week, the firm bought $48 million of the cryptocurrency on Monday and then $225 million on Tuesday. SBET holds 360,807 Ethereum in its treasury. 

On Friday, Bit Digital (BTBT), which previously focused on Bitcoin mining, announced the purchase of approximately 19,683 ETH. The company holds about 120,306 Ethereum worth nearly $70 million.