NEW YORK, June 4, 2026, 11:08 ET
BitMine Immersion Technologies shares ticked up Thursday as the company, focused on ether, announced plans to issue a new preferred stock with a 9.50% annual dividend. The move is an early funding test for a business now closely tied to crypto prices.
The stock was recently at $16.95, up 5 cents. The day’s range ran from $16.35 to $17.43. Ether, the token tied to the Ethereum blockchain, held close to $1,781. U.S. equity sentiment was mixed—SPDR S&P 500 ETF stayed flat, and the Invesco QQQ Trust, tracking the Nasdaq-100, moved lower.
BitMine is making the move now as it looks to bring in capital while digital-asset treasury stocks have lost momentum. Preferred shares are a type of equity that usually get priority over common stock for dividends. Perpetual means there’s no fixed end date for the security.
BitMine plans to sell 3 million shares of its 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock at a $100 stated amount, according to a preliminary prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is seeking to list the preferred stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMNP, pending approval.
The company said it could use proceeds for general corporate needs, such as more ETH and digital asset purchases, growing MAVAN staking and validator operations, working capital, Ethereum-linked investments, and potential buybacks of common stock. Staking is when tokens are locked up to help validate blockchain transactions, earning rewards.
BitMine reported June 1 it now holds 5,416,901 ETH, 203 bitcoin, $446 million in cash, and positions in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings. That brings the company’s total pile in crypto, cash and “moonshots” to $11.6 billion as of May 31, with ETH valued at $2,003. BitMine isn’t just a mining operation with a crypto balance anymore.
At Thursday’s spot ETH price, the disclosed ETH holdings would come to around $9.65 billion before counting cash or other assets. That’s close to 11% less than the value on May 31—a quick sign of how fast treasury numbers can change.
BitMine picked up 26,497 ETH last week, Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee said in the company’s Monday update. Lee said ETH prices are “not reflecting the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals.” BitMine expects to hit its “alchemy of 5%” goal — holding about 5% of ETH supply — in 2026, according to Lee.
BitMine’s pain is growing. CoinDesk, using DropsTab numbers, put the company’s ether unrealized losses at about $8.9 billion after ETH broke under $1,800. According to the report, BMNR dropped to its lowest level since BitMine started its Ethereum treasury plan in 2025.
Strategy is probably the closest public comp here—the bitcoin treasury shop built on Michael Saylor’s capital-markets plan. Reuters on Thursday reported that Strategy’s first bitcoin sale since 2022, meant to cover preferred-stock payouts, rattled crypto investors. Geoffrey Kendrick, who runs digital assets research at Standard Chartered, said “this week has been painful in crypto,” and IG Bank’s Fabien Yip called the deal “symbolic.” Reuters
BitMine’s deal stands out from a typical securities filing. It’s a test: will investors still buy crypto-linked dividend paper as the coin drops and as rivals like Strategy and Strive push how far preferred stock deals can go?
The worry is the cycle could flip. BitMine’s prospectus lays out plans to pay preferred dividends mostly using ETH staking yields, Ethereum options, and new capital, but says it might not have the cash for dividends or could opt out of declaring them. If ether drops more, BitMine might need to sell common shares, securities or crypto to make up for deferred payouts. That could dilute shareholders or cut the treasury investors want exposure to.
