Bitmine's Ethereum Stash Hits 4.9% of Global Supply, Its Validator Network Now Controls 13% of All Staked ETH

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE American: BMNR) added 28,086 ETH over the past week, pushing its Ethereum treasury to 5,929,198 tokens as of Monday, September 7, according to a company statement distributed via PR Newswire. At $2,495 per coin, that stash is worth roughly $14.8 billion. It represents 4.9% of Ethereum's 122.0 million-token circulating supply, according to the company, putting Bitmine 97% of the way to Chairman Tom Lee's stated target of owning 5% of all ETH, a milestone Lee calls the "Alchemy of 5%.".

The company says it has bought Ether every week since launching the strategy on June 30, 2025, according to Crypto Potato. It's now roughly 171,000 ETH short of the 5% line.

The Staking Number That Matters More

But the bigger story isn't the treasury size. It's what Bitmine is doing with it. Of the 5.93 million ETH the company holds, 5,067,309 tokens, or 85% of the total, sit staked inside MAVAN, Bitmine's in-house "Made in America Validator Network" launched in March 2026. According to Tech Times, that gives Bitmine control of approximately 13% of all staked Ethereum on the network, making it the single largest staking entity in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum validators earn rewards by locking up ETH as collateral and confirming transactions under the network's proof-of-stake system, which replaced energy-intensive mining in September 2022. At a 7-day annualized yield of 2.61%, Bitmine projects $330 million in annual staking revenue, a figure Lee said could rise to $386 million once the remaining holdings are fully deployed, according to TradingView.

For scale, Beaconcha.in data cited by Analytics Insight shows roughly 42.99 million ETH staked across more than 909,771 active validators network-wide as of early September. Lido's own mid-2026 report found institutional staking's share of the total staked pool climbing from 25.9% to 35.3% in the first half of the year. One company now sits at the top of that institutional wave.

A Related-Party Fee Swap

Buried in Bitmine's September 8 filing is a structural change to how the company pays for its staking operations. According to TipRanks and Crypto Potato, a Bitmine subsidiary terminated its management agreement with Ethereum Tower LLC on September 3-4, ending a deal that had let Ethereum Tower collect a share of net staking revenue under a ten-year contract signed in March. Bitmine says it paid no material early-termination penalty, though amounts accrued through September 3 remain payable.

In its place, a Bitmine subsidiary signed a new advisory agreement, effective September 4, with American Validator LLC, which Crypto Potato identifies as an affiliate of the very same Ethereum Tower. The new deal simplifies the fee structure to a flat 1.50% of staking rewards rather than a revenue-participation cut. Bitmine frames this as a streamlined, cheaper arrangement. The filing doesn't disclose the ownership overlap between the two entities beyond calling American Validator an affiliate, and no further detail on that relationship has been made public.

The Stock Didn't Celebrate

Despite the milestone, BMNR shares fell about 0.5% Tuesday, according to TradingView, amid a broader market decline. Ethereum itself traded flat just under $2,500. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits stayed in "neutral" territory with low chatter.

Zoom out and the stock has still had a monster run. Bitmine joined the Russell 1000 index on June 26, 2026, and Lee says BMNR is up 99% quarter-to-date, the fourth-best performer in the entire index against a 3% gain for the benchmark. Lee also points out that four of the Russell 1000's top 21 performers since June 30 are crypto-related equities, arguing fund managers benchmarked to the index are underexposed to the sector. TipRanks lists the most recent analyst rating on BMNR as a Buy with a $30 price target, while its own "Spark" AI analysis rates the stock Neutral, citing large losses and negative operating and free cash flow despite a strong balance sheet.

The Decentralization Question

Ethereum's entire pitch, since its 2022 shift to proof-of-stake, has been that no single party should dominate block validation. A network where one company controls roughly 13% of staked ETH, and is closing in on 5% of the entire coin supply, concentrates real influence over transaction ordering and network governance in one Norwalk, Connecticut boardroom. This is a legitimate structural concern raised by crypto purists, not a fringe complaint, even though no source here alleges Bitmine has misused that position or that any validator misbehavior has occurred.

Separately, CoinGecko's tracker puts Bitmine's holdings at 5,901,112 ETH, or about 4.836% of supply, slightly below the company's own 4.9% figure. This depends on which snapshot and tracker you're reading, according to Analytics Insight. CoinGecko counts 34 public companies now holding 7.9 million ETH combined, worth roughly $19.6 billion, with Bitmine as the largest single holder and SharpLink Gaming a distant second at 868,699 ETH.

Bitmine's next weekly disclosure will show whether it crosses the 5% line outright, and whether MAVAN's share of total staked ETH keeps climbing past 13%. Lee is also pointing investors toward the pending Digital Asset Market Clarity Act vote in Congress as a potential catalyst; no vote date or outcome has been confirmed in these sources.