Yuga Labs Rescues $570K in NFTs as BitMine Treasury Climbs to 5.54M ETH

Ethereum News

The team behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club executed a whitehat operation on Sunday that pulled roughly $570,000 worth of Ethereum NFTs out of harm's way before attackers could reach them. The intervention secured 29 Bored Apes and two CryptoPunks, among other assets, after developers traced an exploit on the defunct Floor Protocol to additional vulnerable pools. More than 60 rescued tokens now sit in the firm's custody while it coordinates with the original Floor Protocol team to design a return mechanism. The move illustrates how dormant DeFi infrastructure can resurface as a live threat long after a project sunsets its operations.

On the institutional side, BitMine Immersion Technologies lifted its Ether stockpile to 5.54 million ETH after buying nearly 127,000 tokens over the past week. The accumulation now represents 4.59% of Ethereum's total supply, placing the company at 92% of its declared target of controlling 5% of the network's coins. As of June 7, BitMine reported holdings of 5,543,872 ETH alongside 204 Bitcoin and roughly $247 million in cash and equity positions. The disclosure pushed BitMine shares up more than 6% on Monday, even as the stock remains down around 38% year-to-date against a market capitalization near $9.59 billion.

A substantial share of that treasury is generating yield rather than sitting idle. BitMine said about 4.72 million ETH, or roughly 85% of its position, is currently staked through validator infrastructure worth approximately $7.7 billion at present prices. The firm projected $230 million in annualized staking revenue from that deployment, with the figure potentially climbing toward $270 million if the entire balance is eventually staked through its partner network. Staking rewards stem directly from Ethereum's consensus mechanism, which compensates validators for securing the chain and gives large holders a recurring income stream independent of spot price movements.

The Floor Protocol breach itself exposed a subtle flaw in how the platform priced redemptions. The service had let users deposit NFTs into liquidity pools in exchange for fungible micro-tokens that could be traded on a decentralized exchange or burned to reclaim the underlying asset. Attackers discovered they could convert a tiny amount of wrapped Ether into a near-infinite micro-token balance, then use that inflated supply to drain the pools. Higher-value collections were initially spared only because their associated trading pools lacked liquidity, a gap that left them quietly exposed until the whitehat team identified and neutralized the secondary attack path.

BitMine's scale within the corporate treasury landscape is now difficult to overstate. The company ranks as the single largest Ether treasury among 32 public entities tracked across the sector, holding more than six times the stake of the second-place firm, SharpLink, which controls 868,699 ETH. That concentration reflects a broader trend in which listed companies treat blockchain assets as core balance-sheet reserves rather than speculative side bets. The aggressive pace of accumulation continues despite a punishing year for the asset, underscoring a conviction-driven approach that prioritizes long-term supply control over short-term mark-to-market performance.

That conviction is being tested by a sharp contraction across the wider market. The global crypto market capitalization stands near $2.19 trillion, down from $2.69 trillion on May 9, while Ether has fallen more than 43% year-to-date from above $3,000 in January. BitMine Chairman Tom Lee argued that accelerating demand for artificial intelligence could ultimately benefit public networks such as Ethereum, which he characterized as a reliable decentralized platform. The thesis frames continued DeFi and AI-driven activity as a structural tailwind, even as near-term price action remains firmly under pressure and treasury firms keep buying into the weakness.

Technically, ETH trades around $1,708 after a 4.85% bounce, yet the broader structure stays in a downtrend. The immediate resistance sits at $1,720, followed by $1,784 and $1,872, while support rests at $1,681, $1,615 and a deeper floor near $1,505. An RSI of 27.82 places the asset in oversold territory, which can precede relief rallies, but the MACD still prints a bearish signal that has not yet flipped. A daily close above $1,720 would open room toward $1,784; failure to hold $1,681 risks a retest of $1,615. The bullish case requires reclaiming resistance on volume, while a breakdown below $1,505 would invalidate any near-term recovery thesis.