Bitmine Adds 25,000 ETH as Holdings Near 5% of Supply; CME Launches Index Futures

Ethereum News

On-chain data shows that Bitmine, the corporate vehicle chaired by Tom Lee, acquired another 25,000 Ethereum (ETH) worth roughly $41 million, with the tokens moving out of a BitGo hot wallet. The transfer lifts the company’s three-day buying spree to 125,000 ETH, valued near $205 million at current prices. Bitmine has not yet formally confirmed the latest tranche, which it typically reports through weekly disclosures. The aggressive accumulation continues despite Ethereum’s steep decline this year — the asset has shed more than 44% since January and recently changed hands around $1,640, underscoring Lee’s conviction that the drawdown does not reflect deteriorating fundamentals.

The fresh purchase pushes Bitmine’s total Ethereum treasury to roughly 5,543,872 ETH, the largest corporate ETH position in the world. That holding equals about 4.59% of Ethereum’s 120.7 million circulating supply, leaving the firm 92% of the way toward its stated goal of controlling 5% of the total supply. The company’s investor-relations disclosure last week confirmed a separate acquisition of 126,971 ETH for approximately $207 million, closely mirroring the size of the latest reported buy. Management has framed each leg of weakness as an opportunity to add, accelerating purchases rather than retreating as prices fall through multi-month lows.

In a structural milestone for institutional access, CME Group and Nasdaq launched the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index Futures, the derivatives venue’s first market-capitalization-weighted contract. The benchmark tracks eight assets — Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar — selected by capitalization and liquidity. Two cash-settled versions are available: a full-size contract (ticker NCI) carrying a $10 multiplier and a micro-size contract (MCI) at $1, designed to serve both retail and institutional participants on a regulated exchange. The listing arrives as CME’s crypto futures average daily volume has climbed 43% year-to-date, evidence of deepening institutional demand for diversified, transparent exposure.

Bitmine is also diversifying how it funds the strategy. The company filed to issue three million shares of Series A perpetual preferred stock carrying a 9.5% annual dividend, priced at $100 per share and slated to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMNP. The structure echoes Strategy’s STRC instrument, signaling that digital-asset treasury firms are broadening their capital toolkit beyond common equity and convertible debt. The approach is not without near-term cost: Bitmine shares fell 3.46% on Wednesday to close at $15.64, leaving the firm carrying unrealized losses even as it presses ahead with one of the market’s boldest accumulation programs.

Macro conditions remain a headwind. U.S. consumer prices rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier, the fastest annual pace since 2023 and the third straight month of accelerating inflation, while monthly prices climbed 0.5% on surging energy costs tied to renewed U.S.–Iran conflict. The reading reinforces expectations that the Federal Reserve, now chaired by Kevin Warsh, will keep its 3.5%–3.75% benchmark restrictive, with some traders pricing at least one rate hike this year. Even so, Ethereum ticked higher to around $1,650, resuming a rebound from Friday’s selloff and resisting the broader pressure that elevated rates typically place on a bear market.

On the protocol side, developers are reviving privacy as a core theme. A proposed standard called pERC-20 would let users hold and transfer tokens on the Ethereum blockchain without publicly revealing balances, amounts or counterparties, storing assets as encrypted cryptographic notes while keeping total supply verifiable and adding an issuer-level compliance blacklist. Starknet separately went live with STRK20, a parallel privacy framework. Ethereum’s longer-term security narrative also drew support from a Citi research note concluding that Bitcoin faces materially greater quantum risk than Ethereum, echoing a Google Quantum AI study and bolstering the case some treasuries cite for favoring ETH over BTC.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $1,711 resistance at 72/100 (STRONG), driven by the confluence of the Fibonacci 0.214 retracement, the R1 pivot and the Ichimoku Tenkan line, with the next barrier at $1,776 scored 68/100 on Ichimoku Senkou A and the EMA 20. The engine grades $1,606 support at 72/100, anchored by the S2 pivot and prior-day low. Derivatives data shows a positive 0.0035% funding rate, $6.48 billion in open interest and a 2.51 long/short ratio (71.5% long) — crowded positioning that risks long liquidations. With RSI at 29.81, a bearish MACD and a Fear & Greed reading of 12 (Extreme Fear), a hold above $1,606 favors a retest of $1,711; a break below opens $1,506.