Bitmine Spends More on Buybacks Than ETH as Strategy Skips BTC

• Bitmine bought back another large block of its own shares last week while keeping its weekly Ethereum purchases going.
• The company paid well above its average repurchase price for the year.
• Share buybacks outspent new ETH purchases during the week, and cash reserves declined.
• Strategy directed its capital toward preferred stock and added no Bitcoin over the same period.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), the largest corporate holder of Ether, repurchased 2.04 million of its common shares in the week to October 25 at an average price of $22.48, lifting its 2026 buyback total to $399.6 million across 22.9 million shares. The figures, published in Bitmine’s October 26 announcement, came with another weekly purchase of 10,452 ETH, which brought the company’s holdings to 6,051,933 ETH, or 4.95% of the 122.2 million ETH supply it uses as a reference.

A Higher Price Than the Year’s Average

Multiplying the share count by the disclosed average price puts last week’s spending at roughly $45.9 million, an estimate because Bitmine reports the average price and share count without the exact dollar amount. That single week accounts for about 11.5% of everything the company has spent on buybacks in 2026.

The price stands out more than the total, since at $22.48 Bitmine paid around 28.6% more per share than its 2026 average of $17.48, so management kept repurchasing after the stock had climbed well above the levels where most of this year’s buybacks took place.

Source: Bitmine. Weekly amount estimated from the disclosed average price.

When a Bitmine Buyback Actually Adds Value

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee, who also co-founded research firm Fundstrat, said the company intends to repurchase shares accretively when management considers them relatively undervalued, subject to market conditions and its existing authorization. For a treasury company, a buyback is accretive when the stock trades below the value of the crypto and cash standing behind each share, a gap measured by mNAV (market capitalization divided by net asset value), because every share bought back at a discount increases the amount of ETH attached to the shares that remain. Above that line, the arithmetic flips and issuing new stock becomes the more efficient move.

The release gives no mNAV figure, so the disclosure alone cannot confirm whether $22.48 represented a discount. Its $15 billion headline also needs care, since it combines ETH, 215 BTC, $514 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and $76 million in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS), all measured before liabilities and before the claims of holders of Bitmine’s Series A preferred stock, which trades on the NYSE as BMNP.

Lee described the program as “the largest crypto treasury company common equity buyback ever executed.” The ranking is Bitmine’s own, and a gross spending figure does not show how far the share count actually fell if the company also issued equity during the year.

Buybacks Outspent ETH Purchases

At the $2,356 reference price used in the release, the 10,452 ETH added last week carried a market value of about $24.6 million, which means the week’s estimated share repurchases came to nearly double the value of new ETH, although Bitmine’s actual purchase cost may differ from that reference value. Cash and marketable securities dropped from $582 million to $514 million over the same seven days, a $68 million decline that roughly matches the two outlays combined, although the company provides no cash-flow breakdown and staking rewards arrive during the same period.

Source: Bitmine. Weekly amount estimated from the disclosed average price.

Staking kept growing alongside the buybacks, as Bitmine added 159,728 staked ETH during the week, taking the total to 5,227,037, or about 86% of its holdings, worth $12.3 billion at the reference price. Lee put annualized staking revenue at $318 million at current levels and $368 million if the full treasury were staked, both calculated from a seven-day yield of 2.58% and therefore subject to change as yields and the ETH price move. That income gives Bitmine a recurring source of dollars that Bitcoin treasury companies cannot generate from BTC itself.

Strategy Chose Preferred Stock Instead

Strategy, the Bitcoin treasury company led by executive chairman Michael Saylor, also reported repurchases on October 26 and bought no BTC at all.

Strategy has repurchased $205M of $STRC. As of 10/25/26, we hold 848,517 $BTC and $5.1B of USD Assets. $MSTR https://t.co/XTTFEh0rSc

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) October 26, 2026

According to Strategy’s October 26 filing, it spent $204.9 million buying back 2,068,459 shares of STRC, a perpetual preferred stock with a variable dividend currently set at 12% a year, and kept its holdings at 848,517 BTC. The money came from its discretionary USD Cash pool, which fell from $447.3 million to $242.4 million, while the separate $4.83 billion USD Reserve set aside for dividends and interest stayed untouched.

Week to October 25, 2026. Sources: Bitmine, Strategy.

The two programs work on different layers of the balance sheet. Bitmine’s repurchases raise each common shareholder’s slice of the ETH treasury, provided the shares are retired and new issuance does not offset the effect. Strategy’s purchases shrink a dividend-paying obligation, and if those STRC shares are retired at the current rate, they would remove roughly $24.8 million in yearly dividends based on the $100 reference amount, an illustrative figure the company has not published.

About 58,000 ETH From the 5% Mark

Bitmine has bought ETH every week since launching its treasury strategy on June 30, 2025, and it now sits close to its stated goal of owning 5% of the supply. Reaching that level requires about 58,067 more ETH, worth roughly $137 million at the reference price, which would take five to six weeks at last week’s pace if supply stays flat. The company has not said how it plans to split capital between ETH, buybacks and cash once the target is met. Lee framed the backdrop positively, noting that ETH has fallen 13% from its recent peak while US semiconductor stocks lost 20% over the same stretch, which he reads as a sign that a crypto bull market is underway.

The next date both companies’ investors are likely to watch is November 11, when MSCI is expected to identify the non-operating companies affected by a policy it finalized on October 15 for firms whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset. MSCI’s test of the screen on May 2026 data flagged Strategy and Metaplanet for possible removal and placed Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink on a watchlist. The rule takes effect after the November 30 market close, and any resulting index exclusions could reduce passive demand for the shares of crypto treasury companies, which would change the math behind future buybacks and equity raises across the sector.