Last week, Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies added over 27,000 Ether to its holdings as the company joined the Russell Index tracking the 1,000 largest U.S. companies.
Bitcoin he said on Monday that after its recent $43 million purchase, it held just over 5.7 million ETH purchased at an average price of $1,569 per token and owned 4.7% of the ETH supply of 120.7 million tokens, which is closer to its goal of owning 5% of the Ether supply.
Bitmine CEO Tom Lee said the past week “was a challenging week for cryptocurrency investors as ETH fell 8% even as Ethereum witnessed significant positive developments such as the creation of Ethlabs and even the Bank of England softening its stance on stablecoins.”
The latest Ether purchase increases Bitmine’s lead as the largest public holder of Ether. Meanwhile, its inclusion in the Russell 1000 means greater investor demand for Bitmine’s stock, as many mutual funds, ETFs and pension funds track the Russell 1000 and need to buy shares when they are added.
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“Addition to the Russell 1000 is expected to add hundreds and possibly thousands of additional institutional investors as owners of Bitmine shares,” Lee said.
Lee said in May, when Bitmine was first included in the Russell index, that up to 25% of the market capitalization of stocks included in the index was held by passive index funds.
Shares of Bitmine (BMNR) gained 1.7% on Monday, ending at $13.80, but the company’s stock fell 9% over the last trading week along with Ether.
Bitmine shares rose on Monday, halting losses from the previous trading week. Source: Google Finance
Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency companies Sharplink and Forward Industries, along with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and crypto services company Galaxy Digital, have also been banned. in addition on Friday to the Russell 3000 Index, which includes the 3,000 largest American companies.
Ether fell below $1,600 last week, with Lee commenting that “it is not surprising that ‘rolling out the windows’ is leading to investors reducing their exposure to assets that have declined over the past three months.”
