Bitmine Adds 127K ETH to 5.54M Treasury, MetaMask Launches AI Agent Wallet

Ethereum News

Bitmine Immersion Technologies accelerated its accumulation last week, purchasing 126,971 ETH for roughly $207 million and lifting its total treasury to 5,543,872 tokens worth about $9 billion. The buy represents the firm's largest weekly addition of 2026, a sharp jump from the 26,497 ETH it acquired the prior week. The position now equals 4.59% of Ethereum's circulating supply, leaving the company 92% of the way toward its self-styled "Alchemy of 5%" target with roughly 490,000 ETH still to go. The aggressive bid landed as ETH traded near $1,700, down about 30% from its April highs.

The escalation marks a notable reversal. Bitmine had previously signaled it would slow purchases as it neared its 5% ownership goal, yet management leaned harder into the decline instead. To fund continued buying, the firm unveiled plans to issue a preferred equity class paying dividends, borrowing directly from the playbook of bitcoin-focused treasury vehicles. That strategy carries risk: the company's holdings now sit on an estimated $9.6 billion in paper losses after ETH slid roughly 65% from its August record amid a deepening bear market. Investor scrutiny of dividend-paying preferred shares has intensified, with similar instruments recently trading below par value on liquidity concerns.

Staking remains central to Bitmine's economics. As of June 7, the company had 4,718,677 ETH staked — about 85% of its holdings, valued near $7.7 billion. At prevailing yields, management projects roughly $230 million in annualized staking revenue, a figure that could climb toward $270 million at full deployment across its in-house validator platform and external partners using a 2.99% seven-day rate. The platform, branded MAVAN, or Made in America Validator Network, was originally built to manage internal treasury assets but is now being expanded to serve institutional investors, custodians, and ecosystem partners seeking yield on the network's consensus mechanism.

Chairman Tom Lee dismissed the broader downturn as overblown, calling the crypto selloff a "superficial" reaction that ignores improving fundamentals. He argued the price weakness does not reflect Ethereum's strengthening role and predicted that advancing artificial intelligence systems will drive demand for hardened, decentralized blockchain rails. Lee maintained that ETH prices "should not be coming under pressure," framing the pullback as a buying opportunity rather than a structural warning. Bitmine's broader portfolio reached $9.6 billion across crypto, cash, and venture stakes, including $247 million in cash and positions in Beast Industries and Eightco, the latter offering indirect exposure to OpenAI.

Elsewhere in the ecosystem, MetaMask introduced Agent Wallet, a non-custodial product designed to give autonomous AI agents direct, self-custodied access to the network. The wallet enables machine-driven swaps, perpetuals, prediction-market activity, and liquidity provisioning across EVM-compatible chains and Hyperliquid, with general availability slated for this summer. Consensys founder Joe Lubin framed the launch as the next phase of the onchain economy, arguing that machine intelligences will increasingly transact and coordinate on crypto rails suited to autonomous actors. MetaMask, which commands roughly 26% of the wallet market, positions the tool as infrastructure for agents managing real capital across DeFi protocols.

Security sits at the center of the design, addressing the tension between granting agents autonomy and protecting user funds. Every transaction undergoes mandatory simulation and must comply with user-defined rules, including daily spend limits and approved allow lists. Security firm Blockaid scans activity for scams and threats, triggering two-factor approval prompts for anything deemed risky or outside preset parameters. Transactions cleared as safe carry up to $10,000 in coverage under MetaMask's Transaction Protection. The wallet is framework-agnostic, integrating with agent providers such as OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and Nous Research's Hermes, signaling a push to standardize how automated systems interact with onchain markets.

Technically, ETH trades near $1,686, up about 3.4% on the day yet still locked in a downtrend. The relative strength index sits near 27.5, deep in oversold territory and hinting at a potential relief bounce, though the MACD remains bearish. Immediate support lies at $1,679, with deeper floors at $1,614 and $1,506 if selling resumes. To the upside, resistance stands at $1,712, followed by $1,778 and $1,872. A daily close above $1,712 would strengthen the recovery case, while a breakdown below $1,613 would invalidate the bullish setup and expose the $1,500 region. Watch the ETF flow backdrop for confirmation.