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Crypto giant Bitmine Immersion Technologies has entered the final stretch of its 12-month "Alchemy 5%" operation to aggressively absorb Ethereum, according to a fresh corporate announcement.
The company's latest operating report for July 6 shows that the plan is 95% complete. Bitmine has accumulated 5.74 million ETH tokens — a colossal 4.8% of the coin's entire global supply of 120.7 million ETH. To finalize its historic goal and take control of 5% of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, the holding company has only a symbolic 0.2 percentage points left to buy from the market.
Bitmine's total assets, together with cash and venture projects, have surged to $11.1 billion, and those billions are working at full capacity: 4.88 million ETH have been deployed into staking through the company's own U.S. validator network, MAVAN.
Right now, this infrastructure is generating Bitmine a clean passive income of $235 million to $277 million per year.
Why Ethereum is gaining ground against Bitcoin: Tom Lee breaks down
At the same time, ETH began gaining ground against Bitcoin, as the ETH/BTC ratio chart moved sharply higher. Bitmine chairman Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat, immediately reacted to this surge by publishing a revealing chart. According to him, this rally is a direct signal that large investors have started pricing in Ethereum's real utility.
Lee openly linked the coin's dynamics to expectations around the Clarity Act, which is supposed to recognize ETH as a legal digital commodity under the CFTC's umbrella and permanently free the project from SEC scrutiny. As his main argument, Lee pointed to the fundamental case: the Ethereum network is already actively processing USDC stablecoin transactions for payment giants such as Visa and Shopify.
Against this backdrop, Bitmine's final push toward 5%, despite billions in paper losses, makes BMNR shares the most discussed and risky proxy instrument on Wall Street.
However, this aggressive strategy has another, much harsher side. Because Bitmine spent the entire year buying ETH at an average price above $3,300, while the current price has fallen to the $1,740–$1,800 range, the company's unrealized paper loss broke through the $9 billion to $10 billion mark on July 6.
The holding company is effectively locked into its position — it has no debt, while dividends and expenses are covered by live cash flow from staking, but the company's financial result now depends entirely on the future growth of the ETH price.
While Bitmine absorbs the risks and keeps accumulating Ether, capital has started moving among other heavyweights in the market. The largest corporate Bitcoin holder — Michael Saylor's Strategy — made a rare move and sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million.
Strategy still has 843,775 BTC on its balance sheet, but the very fact of profit-taking against the backdrop of Bitmine's all-out accumulation has forced traders to reassess where major players are now focusing their attention.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
