Ethereum treasury company Bitmine Immersion plans to issue $20 billion

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) stock popped as much as 5% at the opening bell on Tuesday after ethereum (ETH-USD) rose another 5% to trade north of $4,400 and the company announced plans to sell up to another $20 billion worth of stock to increase its holdings of the cryptocurrency.

Bitmine, whose board is led by investor Tom Lee, announced Monday that its holdings of ETH stood at $4.96 billion, or a little over 1.15 million tokens, meaning the company owns roughly 1% of all tokens in circulation.

The company’s goal is to eventually acquire 5% of the world’s outstanding ETH tokens. Monday’s news pushed the stock up more than 14%. The stock is up over 600% this year.

“We are leading crypto treasury peers by both the velocity of raising crypto NAV per share and by the high trading liquidity of our stock,” Tom Lee said in a press release announcing the company’s latest ethereum purchase.

Bitmine is one of a host of cryptocurrency “treasury companies,” a strategy most prolifically pioneered by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), which holds large amounts of bitcoin on its balance sheet.

In plain terms, the companies pursuing the strategy issue stock and use the proceeds from the issuance to buy cryptocurrencies that are held on their balance sheet.

Another major ETH market holder alongside Bitmine, cryptocurrency broker Coinbase (COIN), saw shares up more than 2% in premarket trading on Tuesday. Coinbase operates one of the largest transaction-processing chains on ethereum and holds on its balance sheet more than 100,000 tokens, valued at more than $500 million, according to trade publication Coindesk.

The crypto treasury strategy has attracted a variety of companies, including perennial meme stock GameStop (GME), which announced in March its intent to hold bitcoin on its balance sheet, and ETH treasury holder SharpLink Gaming (SBET).

Ether has soared over the past month, trading up more than 50% to a value of more than $4,400 per token. The cryptocurrency has yet to crest its high-water mark of more than $4,600, which it attained in October 2021.

Bitcoin, comparatively, is up a bit over 1% over the past month.

Ether received a boon in June with the highly successful IPO of fintech giant Circle Internet Group (CRCL), which offers the stablecoin USD Coin. The ethereum network has also gained widespread recognition as the ecosystem of choice for most stablecoin mintings, according to Coindesk.

Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at jake.conley@yahooinc.com.