BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, filed an Aug. 12 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to expand its stock offering by $20 billion.
The filing supplements the company’s earlier at-the-market (ATM) equity program worth $4.5 billion.
BitMine’s equity offerings now stand at roughly $24.5 billion, almost 5x its previous total capacity. The company expects about 173.5 million shares of common stock to be outstanding once the offering closes.
According to the filing, the proceeds will go toward working capital, more Ethereum acquisitions, debt repayment, income-generating asset purchases, and other corporate needs.
This expansion comes less than 24 hours after BitMine revealed it had purchased 317,126 ETH in the past week. That acquisition brought its total holdings to 1.15 million ETH, worth more than $5 billion at current prices.
Meanwhile, market observers have noted that BitMine’s latest funding push could help it secure 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.
Ethereum lifts BitMine stock
BitMine’s aggressive Ethereum accumulation strategy has boosted its stock value significantly.
A report from Pantera Capital showed that the company significantly increased its Ethereum per share (EPS) in the first month after launching its ETH-focused strategy.
According to Pantera:
“BitMine has accumulated more ETH in its first month than Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) did in its first six months executing the strategy.”
At the close of June, BitMine’s shares were priced at $4.27 each, just above its $4 net asset value (NAV) per share. By August, the stock had soared to $51, marking a 1,100% increase in just over a month.
According to Pantera, the surge in stock price was primarily driven by an increase in ETH per share (around 60%), a rise in Ethereum’s price from $2,500 to $4,300 (approximately 20%), and a slight boost from NAV expansion (about 20%).
Data from Google Finance shows that the momentum hasn’t slowed and is trading near $60 at press time.
Mentioned in this article
Source: https://cryptoslate.com/bitmines-ethereum-strategy-drives-record-stock-gains-with-20b-expansion-in-play/