Ethereum Slides Below $1,800 to 14-Week Low as Bitmine Floats $300M Preferred Stock Amid $9B ETH Loss

Ethereum News

Bitmine Immersion Technologies is launching a $300 million perpetual preferred stock offering, adopting the same financing template that Strategy popularized in the Bitcoin treasury sector. The firm filed with the SEC to issue 3 million shares of 9.50% Series A perpetual preferred stock at $100 each, expected to list on the NYSE under the ticker BMNP within 30 days of issuance. Dividends will be paid weekly in cash, funded primarily by income from its staked Ethereum holdings. Proceeds will support additional ETH purchases, expansion of the Made in America Validator Network, and possible common stock buybacks. Bitmine currently controls roughly 4.49% of total ETH supply.

The capital raise mirrors the playbook deployed by Michael Saylor's firm with its Stretch (STRC) preferred shares, which scaled to roughly $8.5 billion in nine months and became the largest preferred stock by market cap globally. Unlike STRC's variable rate, Bitmine's BMNP carries a fixed 9.50% coupon, with accrued unpaid dividends compounding at 9.55% and potentially climbing to 15%. Moelis & Company and Cantor Fitzgerald are serving as joint lead bookrunners. The premium yield signals how much Bitmine must offer to attract investors in a weakening market, as treasury firms face squeezed conditions across the digital-asset sector.

The offering arrives despite mounting paper losses on Bitmine's existing position. Filings show the company holds 5,416,901 ETH following a June 1 acquisition of 26,497 tokens, with unrealized losses estimated at roughly $9.2 billion as ether trades near $1,774. Bitmine shares (BMNR) fell 5.95% on Wednesday to close at $16.90. Chairman Tom Lee has consistently downplayed the drawdown, characterizing it as a paper figure that will recover. Roughly 4.7 million ETH, or about 87% of the stack, is staked, generating annualized revenue of approximately $276 million that helps service the new dividend obligations.

BMNR stock has now dropped 28% since early May, sinking below its February lows to the weakest level since the firm pivoted to an Ethereum treasury strategy in May 2025. Bitmine financed its ETH accumulation primarily through equity issuance rather than debt, sparing it the leverage and interest exposure that has destabilized some peers. Even so, treasury equities have broadly drifted below the value of their underlying tokens. The dynamic has forced operators to explore yield-bearing preferred instruments as a workaround, even as some Bitcoin-focused peers, including Strategy, recently disclosed their first BTC sales in years to manage capital obligations.

Prediction-market positioning has turned sharply bearish, with traders pricing in a 71% probability that ether revisits $1,500 before any rebound to $3,000, up roughly 25 percentage points since mid-May. The session saw ETH open at $2,004, briefly tag $2,018, then plunge to an intraday low of $1,814.90 after sellers rejected the reclaim attempt. The pattern of lower highs and lower lows from the $4,954 all-time high set in August 2025 remains intact. Departures from key Ethereum Foundation contributors and 15 consecutive sessions of ETF net outflows have compounded the structural pressure.

The selloff pushed ether to a 14-week low near $1,814 on spot venues, with the daily RSI sliding to 25, its lowest reading since February 6. The Coinbase Premium Index hit its weakest level since February as well, pointing to persistent softness in US spot demand. Spot Ethereum ETF products have now logged 16 straight sessions of outflows. Analysts flag $1,800 as the last meaningful support before a deeper unwind toward $1,600 or even the $1,200-$1,400 range. Echoing February's setup, some traders note that oversold conditions could precede a relief bounce comparable to the 39% rebound seen earlier this year.

Technically, ether is pinned in a bear market structure trading near $1,789 with a -4.47% daily print, an RSI of 19 confirming deeply oversold territory, and a bearish MACD signal reinforcing the prevailing downtrend. Immediate support sits at $1,769, followed by $1,717 and $1,513, while reclaiming $1,802 is the minimum required to neutralize sellers, with $1,878 and $2,002 as upside hurdles. A bullish reversion thesis hinges on an RSI mean-revert bounce defending $1,769; a daily close below $1,717 invalidates that setup and opens the $1,513 liquidity pocket flagged by derivatives positioning.