BitMine adds 24,000 ether, but warns accumulation may slow without shareholder approval

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest Ethereum-focused crypto treasury company, continued to buy ether ETH$3,125.91 through last week, but has warned that the pace may not last.

The firm added 24,266 ether ETH$3,125.91 last week, lifting its holdings to 4,167,768 tokens as of Sunday. The purchase pushes BitMine’s share of ether’s circulating supply to 3.45%, with a goal to ultimately corner 5% of all tokens.

Chairman Thomas Lee, in a statement on Monday, said that BitMine’s ability to continue accumulating ETH depends on shareholder approval to authorize new equity issuance.

Without it, the firm could be forced to slow its buying in the weeks ahead, he added.

“We need to pursue this increase now as Bitmine is soon to exhaust its current 500 million authorization,”Lee said. “And when that happens, our ETH accumulation will slow.”

A shareholder vote will take place on Thursday. The proposal for the share increase requires the support 50.1% of all shares outstanding in order to proceed.

“This is an extremely high bar and thus, makes it very difficult to get an authorized share increase,” said Lee, who will speak at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong next month.

While other digital asset treasuries have pulled back their purchases over the past months amid volatile prices, BitMine has continued to accumulate ETH, funding the purchases by selling shares.

BitMine’s total assets, including crypto, cash and strategic investments, rose to $14 billion last week with ETH prices hovering around $3,100. The firm also increased its cash reserves by $73 million to $988 million. The company holds 193 bitcoin and a $23 million stake in Eightco Holdings.

The firm said it has staked over 1.2 million of its ETH, which allows to earn a revenue on its holdings.