BitMine seeks $300M in preferred shares to buy ETH

BitMine filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $300 million of Series A preferred shares to finance additional Ethereum purchases, staking operations and validator infrastructure. The company applied to list the preferreds on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMNP.

The offering would consist of 3 million preferred shares with a $100 stated amount and a 9.50% annual cash dividend payable in weekly installments, subject to board approval of payments before shares are issued. If fully subscribed, the sale would raise $300 million.

Proceeds are intended to increase BitMine’s ETH treasury, expand staking and validator infrastructure, and fund related investments. BitMine identified native ETH staking as its principal revenue source. The filing states the company had 4.7 million ETH staked through its MAVAN platform as of May 25, with projected annualized staking revenue of about $276 million.

The filing lists total ETH holdings of 5,416,901 ETH, roughly 4.48% of the network’s supply, after a recent purchase of 26,497 ETH valued at about $52 million. The company reported approximately $446 million in cash on hand.

The preferred-stock proposal follows a series of large ETH purchases this spring. BitMine’s holdings passed 5 million ETH in April. The company completed a roughly $151 million buy in May and a subsequent $237 million purchase that it said brought it close to its goal of holding 5% of Ethereum’s supply. BitMine’s bitcoin-focused counterpart, Strategy, sold about $2.5 million of Bitcoin to help fund dividends on its own preferred stock.

Analysts and the filing point to staking yields and validator revenues, including MEV optimization, as potential sources to fund the 9.50% dividend while allowing some ETH rewards to compound on-chain. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, noted that a larger staked ETH treasury could raise the dollar value of staking rewards if ETH prices rise and could reduce the need to use cash.

Risk factors in the filing and from analysts include ETH price volatility and timing risks when converting staking rewards into dollars to pay dividends. The filing highlights the dependence on converting ETH rewards at favorable prices and times.

Ryan Yoon, a senior analyst at Tiger Research, described founder Tom Lee as having strong conviction in ETH and called ETH “his only viable hedge,” noting that staking yield gives BitMine a differentiator for generating income to support shareholder payouts. The preferred offering remains subject to market conditions and board approvals.