TLDR
- Bitmine (BMNR) closed up 13.88% at $23.39 on Monday
- The company acquired an $80M stake in Eightco (ORBS), which holds a $50M equity position in OpenAI
- Bitmine led a $125M institutional round in Eightco, investing $75M itself
- The company purchased 60,999 ETH last week, bringing total holdings to over 4.5 million ETH
- Chairman Tom Lee said the accelerated ETH buying reflects a view that crypto is near the end of a “mini-crypto winter”
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) jumped 13.88% on Monday, closing at $23.39. The move came after the company disclosed two major developments — a new indirect link to OpenAI and a faster pace of Ethereum buying.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc., BMNR
Bitmine acquired an $80 million stake in Eightco Holdings (ORBS). Eightco used $50 million of that capital to buy equity in OpenAI. Since OpenAI is a private company, this gave Bitmine — and its investors — an indirect path to OpenAI exposure through a publicly traded vehicle.
“ORBS is now the only publicly listed equity in the world to give investors direct exposure to OpenAI,” Bitmine said in a statement. OpenAI’s IPO is expected sometime in 2026.
Bitmine led a broader $125 million institutional funding round for Eightco, contributing $75 million of that total. Other investors provided the remaining $50 million.
Eightco’s stock trades below $0.01 per share, but the value of Bitmine’s position in the company is now estimated at around $83 million following the OpenAI news.
ETH Buying Picks Up Pace
On the crypto side, Bitmine acquired 60,999 Ethereum tokens last week. That’s up from an average weekly pace of 45,000 to 50,000 ETH in recent weeks. Five thousand of those tokens were purchased directly from the Ethereum Foundation.
That purchase brought Bitmine’s total ETH holdings to 4,595,562 tokens. The company also holds 196 BTC alongside broader cash reserves.
Chairman Tom Lee explained the thinking behind the faster buying. “Our base case is ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter,'” Lee said. “In the past week, we acquired 60,999 ETH compared to an average of 45k to 50k weekly recently.”
Bitmine’s balance sheet also includes a reported $1.2 billion in available cash and a $200 million position in Beast Industries, giving it a large pool of capital for further deals.
Eightco Acts as Bridge to Private AI Market
The Eightco structure is doing something specific here. It’s giving a public company a way to hold equity in a private AI firm and pass that exposure to market participants who couldn’t otherwise access it. OpenAI remains one of the most closely watched private companies in tech, and direct investment is largely out of reach for public investors.
Bitmine’s approach threads that needle — using a penny stock as a conduit, backed by a large institutional investment.
Lee has been vocal about linking Ethereum treasury management to broader technology investment. The logic: hold ETH, generate liquidity, deploy into high-conviction bets like AI.
Eightco (ORBS) stock fell 12.44% on Monday, even as BMNR climbed. That divergence suggests the market is pricing the opportunity differently depending on which side of the deal you’re on.
Bitmine’s total ETH position of more than 4.5 million tokens, combined with the $83 million Eightco stake, reflects how the company is currently positioned heading into the week.
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