On Thursday, BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), a publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm, was uplisted from the smaller NYSE American exchange to the New York Stock Exchange. The transition occurred after Wednesday’s market close, and since then, BMNR shares have risen nearly 1%, trading at about $21.75.
Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine, expressed pride in this advancement: “Today, BitMine reached a significant milestone by being uplisted to the ‘Big Board’ NYSE. The NYSE is globally renowned, and BitMine is honored to join its list of companies.” Additionally, the company’s board approved an expansion of its share buyback program from $1 billion to $4 billion.
Lee stated, “The expanded $4 billion buyback underscores our dedication to shareholders. Should BMNR shares fall below intrinsic value in the future, we aim to be able to repurchase shares advantageously.” However, it seems no funds have been used for share repurchases yet. Decrypt attempted to confirm this with BitMine but did not receive an immediate response.
Other digital asset treasuries have similarly adopted buyback strategies when their market net asset value (mNAV) trades below 1, indicating a discount. For instance, Sharplink (SBET), another Ethereum treasury company, only buys ETH when its mNAV exceeds 1 and repurchases shares otherwise, which is deemed favorable for shareholders.
Although Lee suggested potential future share buybacks when prices drop below ‘intrinsic value,’ current data indicate BMNR trades with an mNAV under 1. Nonetheless, the firm has been actively acquiring Ethereum, purchasing approximately $150 million worth last week. Its intraday market cap stands at roughly $9.81 billion as per Yahoo Finance.
BMNR holds over 4.8 million Ethereum tokens, valued at more than $10.6 billion with ETH priced at $2,216. It also possesses around $14 million in Bitcoin and has total cash holdings of $864 million, resulting in approximately $11.4 billion in overall assets, as reported in a press release on Monday.
Despite these moves, BMNR shares have declined by about 63% over the past six months, mirroring Ethereum’s 55% drop from its August peak at $4,946.