Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies has restarted a steady program of Ethereum treasury buying, adding 9,926 ETH during the week ending Aug. 16. The company says the purchase brings its Ether holdings to roughly 5.82 million ETH—about 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply—putting it close to its long-term goal of owning 5% of the asset’s total supply.

In its disclosure, Bitmine also provided valuation context: at an ETH reference price of $1,893, the latest portfolio total is worth about $11 billion. But the company notes that many of its ETH were acquired at significantly higher prices, underscoring how difficult the prolonged bear market has been for Ethereum treasury strategies.

Key takeaways

• Bitmine bought 9,926 ETH for the week ending Aug. 16, lifting holdings to about 5.82 million ETH (around 4.8% of circulating supply).
• At a reference price of $1,893, Bitmine’s Ether stake is valued near $11 billion, though acquisition costs are substantially higher for a large portion of the position.
• Industry data cited by DropsTab estimates unrealized losses of more than $8.4 billion on the current ETH treasury.
• Despite the drawdown, Bitmine continues to stake more than 5 million ETH, which it says is generating protocol rewards.
• Bitmine’s staking yield was reported at 2.61% over seven days, implying roughly $287 million in annualized staking rewards, according to Tom Lee.

Restarting the “Alchemy of 5%” push

Bitmine’s strategy is built around scale and patience. After resuming purchases last week, the company is now within reach of its “Alchemy of 5%” target: holding 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. That target matters because it signals a treasury model designed to treat Ether as a long-duration bet rather than a tactical trading position.

According to Bitmine’s disclosure, the latest weekly buy also helps explain why the company continues to frame its program as a process rather than a series of opportunistic trades. The reported accumulation keeps the company moving toward a specific ownership threshold—one that would materially increase its influence and relevance as an institutional holder in Ethereum’s expanding ecosystem.

Unrealized losses remain a pressure point

The renewed buying comes even as Ether’s market environment has tested Bitmine’s conviction. The company is reported to be sitting on more than $8.4 billion in unrealized losses on its ETH holdings, based on industry data cited by DropsTab. DropsTab’s estimate places Bitmine’s unrealized losses at around 43% relative to the company’s reported acquisition costs, despite the current portfolio value being above $11 billion.

That mismatch—between the size of the position and the magnitude of drawdowns—highlights a key risk for any “buy-and-hold” treasury plan executed through a full market cycle. Even when a strategy is long-term, the path matters: buying during a downtrend can create large paper losses that only reverse if market prices recover meaningfully.

Staking helps fund the wait

What differentiates Bitmine’s approach from a simple spot accumulation strategy is its ongoing staking operation. The company said it is staking more than 5 million ETH, which it values at roughly $9.6 billion at current prices. By staking, Bitmine earns protocol rewards for helping secure the network—providing a source of yield that can partially offset the emotional and financial pressure of unrealized drawdowns.

Bitmine’s filing also links its staking activity to a measurable performance indicator. Based on a seven-day staking yield of 2.61%, Tom Lee projects annualized staking rewards of roughly $287 million. While annualized estimates can fluctuate—since staking yields depend on network conditions and how rewards are distributed—the point for investors is clear: Bitmine’s treasury is not entirely exposed to price movement. A portion of its return profile is tied to staking economics rather than only to Ether’s market direction.

Still, staking does not remove the core uncertainty. If Ether’s price does not recover, unrealized losses can remain large even while protocol rewards accrue. Conversely, if Ether rebounds, staking rewards can accelerate the path toward a healthier overall position—both in absolute returns and relative to acquisition costs.

Why steady accumulation is notable now

Bitmine’s restart of weekly Ether purchases suggests the company is treating the current phase of the market as compatible with its long-term ownership targets. Earlier coverage noted that Bitmine has continued accumulating Ether through weekly buys since launching its ETH treasury strategy in June 2025. In that context, the latest addition looks less like a reaction to short-term price action and more like execution of a defined roadmap.

For market observers, that matters because large treasury actions can act as a counterpoint to narratives that institutional interest fades during downturns. Even when unrealized losses mount, Bitmine appears willing to keep buying as it approaches its 5% target—while using staking yield to keep the strategy funded.

There is, however, an important asymmetry to watch. As Bitmine nears the 5% level, further buying can become harder depending on remaining supply dynamics and how the company structures future deployment. The company’s near-term challenge may shift from “can it keep accumulating?” to “how does it manage valuation risk and portfolio efficiency as its position grows?”

Next, investors and traders will likely focus on whether Bitmine can sustain weekly accumulation while Ethereum staking yields remain stable enough to support the projected reward rate. Just as importantly, readers should watch how fast the market price of Ether moves relative to Bitmine’s acquisition costs—because staking can soften the drawdown, but only a meaningful price recovery can fully relieve the unrealized loss picture.

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.

All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

Ethereum researchers have proposed prioritizing two transaction changes for the 2027 Hegotá upgrade that could let privacy pools pay network fees without third-party intermediaries.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter said in an Aug. 17 X post that the Protocol Architecture team wants developers to prioritize Frame Transactions, listed as EIP-8141, and Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, known as FOCIL or EIP-7805.

Ethereum privacy pools could pay their own fees

Frame Transactions would introduce a programmable transaction format that gives wallets more control over validation, execution, and gas payments. Wahrstätter described frames as a “much more expressive transaction format” and a key part of Ethereum’s planned transaction experience.

Under the proposal, transaction logic would be divided into programmable frames instead of relying on Ethereum’s current fixed transaction structure. Wallets and applications could use the format for gas sponsorship, alternative signature systems, key rotation, and other forms of account abstraction.

For privacy pools, the fee-payment feature could remove the need for a separate relayer to submit a transaction and pay its gas. Relayers can create another point where transaction details, wallet behavior, or network information may become visible to an outside service.

“Together with Frames, these enable privacy pools where the pool itself can pay fees, removing the need for intermediaries,” Wahrstätter said. “Add FOCIL support, and privacy transactions also gain protocol-level inclusion guarantees.”

Frame Transactions would work with Keyed Nonces and Recent Roots, listed as EIP-8272. Keyed Nonces would let an account maintain separate transaction sequences, while Recent Roots would allow a transaction to refer to a recent Ethereum state without relying on one fixed block reference.

The proposed package also includes Transaction Assertions, or EIP-7906. According to Wahrstätter, assertions would let wallets define conditions that must remain true when a transaction is processed, giving users a way to limit what can happen after they sign and submit it.

Earlier crypto.news coverage found that EIP-8141 remains under consideration rather than scheduled for Hegotá. Ethereum client teams are also comparing it with EIP-8130, another account-abstraction proposal, before deciding which design should move into implementation and testing.

FOCIL would protect eligible transactions from censorship

FOCIL is the only Ethereum Improvement Proposal currently scheduled for Hegotá. The design would allow a committee of validators to publish lists of transactions that block builders are expected to include.

Attesters could reject a proposed block if its builder improperly left out eligible transactions from an inclusion list. Ethereum developers have presented the system as a way to protect transaction access as block production becomes more specialized and concentrated among large builders.

Privacy transactions could benefit because users would not have to depend entirely on a block builder’s willingness to include them. FOCIL would not make transactions private on its own, but it would add a protocol process for resisting selective exclusion.

Wahrstätter has argued that combining FOCIL with Frame Transactions, Keyed Nonces, and Recent Roots would give privacy pools both independent fee payment and stronger inclusion protection. His proposal represents a researcher’s preferred package, not a final decision by Ethereum’s core developers.

Hegotá currently has 66 proposals under discussion, covering account abstraction, censorship resistance, transaction pricing, state growth, validator economics, and network scaling. The number does not mean all 66 features will ship, as most have not entered implementation, development networks, or public testnets.

“A fork can’t be a wishlist by the community or core devs jamming on what Ethereum should eventually become,” Wahrstätter wrote in an earlier post. Developers instead need to decide which changes Ethereum should adopt next and which ones require more time, he added.

US scrutiny has kept crypto privacy tools in focus

For US users, the proposals concern how Ethereum processes private transactions rather than changing federal rules governing money transmission, sanctions, or illicit finance. American treatment of crypto privacy software has remained contested across Treasury actions and criminal cases involving mixing services.

The US Treasury removed economic sanctions against Tornado Cash in March 2025 after reviewing the legal and policy questions raised by applying sanctions to technology-based financial activity. Treasury said at the time that it remained concerned about North Korean hackers and other illicit actors using digital assets.

In a separate criminal case, a Manhattan jury convicted Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Jurors did not reach verdicts on the money-laundering and sanctions charges, according to the reported split verdict.

The US Justice Department said Tornado Cash had transmitted more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds connected to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Storm’s defense maintained that the protocol operated through autonomous open-source software and that its developers did not control individual transactions.

Ethereum’s proposed privacy pool design differs at the protocol level because Wahrstätter’s post deals with fee payment and transaction inclusion, not the legal structure or compliance systems of a specific application. Neither EIP-8141 nor EIP-7805 defines how privacy applications would handle US sanctions screening, money-transmission rules, or other compliance requirements.

Hegotá follows Ethereum’s 2026 Glamsterdam upgrade

Hegotá is scheduled to follow Glamsterdam, the Ethereum upgrade developers want to release before the end of 2026. A June upgrade report said Glamsterdam centers on Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation and Block-Level Access Lists, alongside changes to the way Ethereum prices network resources.

Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation would bring the division between block proposers and builders into Ethereum’s protocol. Block-Level Access Lists would show which accounts and contract data a block needs, allowing clients to prepare data before execution and process some transactions in parallel.

Hegotá candidates extend that work into privacy, censorship resistance, account abstraction, and state management. Scaling proposals under review include EIP-8368, which would adjust state-creation costs if Ethereum raises its gas limit beyond the level used for Glamsterdam.

Developers are also studying separate access-list data, higher gas limits approaching 500 million to 600 million, and optional zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine proofs on the main network. Each proposal must compete for engineering resources, client support, testing time, and space within the 2027 release schedule.

Privacy and quantum resistance also sit inside Ethereum’s multi-year technical plans. A July roadmap analysis reported that Vitalik Buterin’s Lean Ethereum plan calls for new cryptography, proof-based verification, redesigned storage, and native protocol privacy over the next three to four years.

Execution client teams are due to submit their Hegotá preference lists by Sept. 10. Before then, developers plan to compare EIP-8141 with EIP-8130 during an Aug. 25 breakout meeting, with a decision on the competing account-abstraction designs targeted for the Aug. 27 All Core Developers Execution call.

How can you tell if you’re frail?

It’s not a priority, said Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, but Strategy (MSTR) could buy back its own shares if they become cheap enough.

The comments during a Monday Q&A follow a rough stretch for Strategy’s common shareholders. MSTR is down about 38% this year and 73% year-over-year, driven in large part by bitcoin’s BTC$64,308.57 decline, as well as by the consistent issuance of common stock to fund more bitcoin purchases, build cash reserves, pay dividends, and repurchase preferred stock.

“If MSTR is trading at a very, very deep discount to NAV, then probably you would see us do something like that,” Saylor said.

For now, though, Strategy is focused on its preferred stock business, especially STRC.

CEO Phong Le also defended Strategy’s practice of selling new MSTR shares. While some investors worry that issuing more stock dilutes existing shareholders, Le argued that selling shares can help when MSTR trades above the value of the assets backing each share, and Strategy uses the proceeds to buy bitcoin. In that situation, he said, the amount of bitcoin backing each MSTR share can increase.

The recent drop in STRC has also changed how Strategy manages its money.

Trump argues that presidential immunity applies

Bitcoin treasury company Strategy diluted shareholders of MSTR, the company’s common stock, by $333.7 million last week and bought no bitcoin (BTC). Instead, the company redirected about 40% of the proceeds to repurchase STRC for its preferred shareholders, 16% as STRC dividends, and kept the rest for itself as cash.

Strategy disclosed the transactions in an SEC filing this morning. It was the company’s fourth straight week of diluting MSTR shareholders with $0 BTC purchases.

In fact, Strategy has not increased its BTC holdings since June 21, 2026. It owns 6,916 fewer BTC today than it did two months ago. 

As a reward for patiently enduring founder Michael Saylor’s shareholder dilution program, MSTR shareholders have lost 16% of their investment since the company reported its last BTC purchase.

In fact, since the July 2025 debut of STRC on the Nasdaq, the price of MSTR has declined 75%.

The STRC rollercoaster from $100 to $71.25 to $95

Strategy has raised roughly $16.3 billion by diluting MSTR since it launched STRC, a dividend-paying preferred share that is supposed to trade near $100 yet has actually traded as low as $71.25 on the Nasdaq.

As STRC collapsed earlier this year, the company started to stack USD instead of BTC — an effort to assure investors that it would pay STRC dividends. It also resorted to direct buybacks of STRC after amassing cash didn’t do the trick. 

Still, STRC languishes, trading below $95 today.