Bitmine nears 5% ETH supply target as Robinhood Chain drives demand
Bitmine has accumulated nearly 5% of all Ether, marking a pivot in corporate crypto treasuries as layer-2 networks like Robinhood Chain draw institutional capital to Ethereum over Bitcoin.
Bitmine now holds 5.78 million ETH, or 4.8% of the circulating supply, after acquiring 7,430 tokens over the past week. The firm is rapidly approaching its publicly stated goal of holding 5% of the network. This accumulation stands in stark contrast to Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, which paused its BTC purchases for a second consecutive week to build a $3.2 billion cash reserve.
The Ethereum treasury company values its total assets at $11.5 billion, a portfolio that includes 207 Bitcoin alongside $385 million in cash and marketable securities. The vast majority of its Ether—roughly 4.9 million tokens—is actively staked through its validator network.
This staking operation generated $45.7 million in the quarter ended May 31, accounting for 98% of Bitmine's total revenue. The company also repurchased 5.5 million shares under a $4 billion program, helping push its stock up more than 6% on Monday afternoon.
Ether has outperformed Bitcoin over the past month, gaining 10% compared to Bitcoin’s 2.6% rise. This momentum, bringing ETH to roughly $1,900 from $1,582 on July 1, aligns with the launch of Robinhood Chain.
The Ethereum layer-2 network built on Arbitrum has attracted more than $141 million in bridged Ether in two weeks. This influx has reignited debate over whether the adoption of Ethereum scaling solutions by mainstream finance translates into direct demand for the base layer token.
The institutional push into tokenization is reshaping analyst expectations. Max Shannon, senior research analyst at Bitwise, told Cointelegraph that Robinhood Chain reflects the "growth of the Ethereum ecosystem," particularly as traditional finance integrates with the network.
ARK Invest’s Lorenzo Valente argued the chain supports the bullish case for ETH as a monetary asset, but weakens the thesis that Ethereum derives significant value from layer-2 fee revenue. For Robinhood, Bernstein analysts raised their price target to $160 from $130, forecasting growth driven by tokenized equities and prediction markets rather than traditional crypto trading.
