BlackRock Quietly Loads 9M Bitmine Shares Worth $246M—Even as Ethereum Whales Dump 160K ETH

BlackRock increased its stake in Bitmine Immersion Technologies by 165.6% in Q4 2025, now holding 9.05 million BMNR shares valued at $246 million, betting on Bitmine’s rapidly growing Ethereum treasury, which holds 4.3 million ETH—3.5% of total supply—plus nearly $10 billion in combined assets.

Yet the institutional endorsement arrives as Ethereum itself trades at $1,958, just 5% above critical support, with whales offloading 160,000 ETH in nine days. The contradiction captures crypto in 2026: institutions want exposure to ETH-powered strategies, but they do not want to hold ETH.

The 13F Signal: BlackRock Goes All-In on Bitmine

On February 13, 2026, BlackRock filed its quarterly 13F with the SEC, revealing a position that went unnoticed by most headline scanners but registered instantly with institutional crypto traders.

The world’s largest asset manager now holds 9.05 million shares of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, ticker BMNR. The position is worth approximately $246 million at current prices. That represents a 165.6% increase from the previous quarter.

For context, BlackRock manages roughly $14 trillion in assets. A $246 million position is not portfolio-altering. But a 165% quarterly increase in a single crypto-industrial stock is not random drift. It is deliberate accumulation.

The filing reflects holdings as of December 31, 2025. That means BlackRock was buying BMNR aggressively during the fourth quarter—precisely when Ethereum collapsed from its October peak of $4,100 to below $2,000. Bitmine’s stock, like every ETH-correlated asset, was under severe pressure. BlackRock used that pressure as an entry ramp.

What Is Bitmine? The Ethereum Treasury Machine Disguised as a Miner

Bitmine Immersion Technologies began as a Bitcoin mining operation. That is no longer its primary function. Over the past 18 months, the company has transformed itself into something stranger and more ambitious: a publicly traded vehicle for accumulating and staking Ethereum.

According to company disclosures, Bitmine now holds more than 4.3 million ETH. That is approximately 3.5% of the total circulating supply. Combined with its cash reserves, the company’s total assets approach $10 billion.

A significant portion of its ETH is already staked, generating yield through validator rewards and priority fees. Management has stated publicly that its long-term goal is to control roughly 5% of the total ETH supply.

This is not mining. This is not infrastructure services. This is a corporate treasury strategy, executed through a Nasdaq-listed shell, that now rivals the holdings of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation combined.

BlackRock did not buy Bitmine for its immersion cooling patents. It bought Bitmine for the ETH on its balance sheet.

The $1,958 ETH Problem: Price Action Diverges From Adoption

Yet even as BlackRock funnels capital into the largest public Ethereum treasury, the underlying asset itself is wilting.

Ethereum trades at $1,958 as of February 13, 2026. That is just 5% above the critical support level of $1,847. Below that, the next floors are $1,658 and $1,504—territory not visited since 2023.

The rally from the February 6 low of $1,700 brought temporary relief. It did not bring conviction. The Relative Strength Index exhibits a hidden bearish divergence: price made lower highs while RSI made higher highs. This pattern typically resolves with a sharp move lower once sellers regain control.

Meanwhile, on-chain data shows that whale addresses—large holders excluding exchanges—reduced their positions by 160,000 ETH between February 3 and February 12. That is approximately $312 million in sell pressure over nine days.

The question writes itself: why are insiders and large holders exiting while BlackRock is entering through a proxy vehicle?

The BUIDL Paradox: BlackRock’s $2.5B Tokenized Fund Uses Ethereum, Not ETH

To understand the disconnect, examine BlackRock’s other Ethereum-related product: BUIDL.

Launched in March 2024, BUIDL is a tokenized fund that invests in U.S. Treasury bills and repurchase agreements. It offers institutional investors yield through blockchain-based settlement. Assets under management now stand at approximately $2.5 billion, making it the largest tokenized real-world asset fund in existence.

Approximately 90% of BUIDL’s assets are held on the Ethereum network. Ethereum also hosts roughly 65% of all tokenized assets across the entire crypto market.

This is massive institutional validation of Ethereum as infrastructure. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has chosen Ethereum to tokenize $2.5 billion of Treasuries. That should be unequivocally bullish.

But BUIDL does not buy ETH. Institutions participating in BUIDL hold tokenized Treasuries, not Ether. They pay gas fees to move their tokens, which creates trivial demand compared to speculative trading. They do not accumulate ETH for long-term holding. They use Ethereum as plumbing.

Whales see this gap between narrative and mechanics. They understand that infrastructure adoption takes years to translate into token price support. So they sell into strength, reduce exposure, and wait for a better entry—or rotate into assets with more immediate yield.

The Bitmine Thesis: Staked ETH as Institutional Yield Product

Bitmine’s strategy is a direct response to this problem. The company does not ask institutions to buy and stake ETH themselves. That requires custody setup, validator management, slashing risk, and accounting treatment of staking rewards.

Instead, Bitmine does all of that internally, bundles it into a corporate structure, and lists the resulting equity on Nasdaq. Investors buy BMNR and receive exposure to:

• A growing ETH treasury (4.3M coins, targeting 5% of total supply)
• Staking yield passed through via corporate earnings
• Potential price appreciation of the underlying ETH
• The liquidity and reporting advantages of a public equity

This is not a perfect substitute for direct ETH exposure. It carries corporate governance risk, execution risk, and the structural inefficiencies of a holding company discount. But for institutions that cannot or will not custody crypto natively, it is the only game in town.

BlackRock appears to have concluded that this vehicle is attractive enough to justify tripling its position during a bear market.

Key Metrics: BlackRock, Bitmine, and Ethereum

The Divergence Trade: Long Bitmine, Short ETH?

The current market structure invites a specific institutional trade: buy the publicly traded ETH treasury vehicle, hedge the underlying token.

If the thesis is correct that Bitmine’s discount to net asset value will narrow as institutional demand increases, and that ETH itself remains range-bound or weak due to whale selling and stagnant retail interest, the pair trade offers asymmetric upside.

There is no public evidence that BlackRock is executing this exact strategy. But the footprint of its 13F—accumulating BMNR while ETH futures and ETFs see outflows—is consistent with a view that the vehicle is more attractive than the asset.

This is not how crypto maximalists envisioned institutional adoption. They expected institutions to buy and hold Bitcoin and Ethereum, period. Instead, institutions are buying infrastructure companies, treasury vehicles, and structured products that offer exposure without custody burden or regulatory ambiguity.

BlackRock is not betting against Ethereum. It is betting that the demand for ETH exposure will route through corporate balance sheets rather than direct token ownership.

Who Is Running Bitmine?

Bitmine Immersion Technologies is led by a management team that has kept a deliberately low public profile. Unlike MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, who became the public face of corporate Bitcoin accumulation, Bitmine’s executives have focused on operational execution rather than media visibility.

The company began as a Bitcoin mining firm specializing in immersion cooling, a technology that submerges mining hardware in non-conductive fluid to improve efficiency. As Ethereum transitioned to proof-of-stake and mining became irrelevant to that network, Bitmine pivoted. It sold or repurposed much of its mining hardware and began accumulating ETH through open-market purchases and over-the-counter blocks.

The pivot was controversial among legacy mining investors. It has proven prescient. Bitmine now holds more ETH than any other publicly traded company, and its staking operation generates recurring revenue independent of Ethereum’s price volatility.

BlackRock’s 165% stake increase is the ultimate validation of that pivot.

What Happens If Ethereum Breaks $1,847?

The technical setup for Ethereum remains precarious. A break below $1,847 would trigger a cascade of stop losses and likely accelerate whale selling. The next support levels—$1,658 and $1,504—are 15% and 23% lower, respectively.

For Bitmine, such a move would create substantial paper losses on its ETH treasury. The company has not indicated any intention to sell, and its staking revenue provides a buffer, but mark-to-market accounting would produce ugly quarterly reports.

For BlackRock, a deeper ETH correction would present a choice: continue accumulating BMNR at lower prices, or pause and reassess. Given the 165% increase in Q4, the firm has demonstrated tolerance for volatility.

For the broader market, the divergence between institutional validation of Ethereum as infrastructure and institutional rejection of ETH as an asset would widen further. BUIDL would keep growing. Tokenization would keep expanding. The price would keep falling.

That scenario is not sustainable indefinitely. At some point, utility and price must converge. But markets can remain irrational longer than holders can remain solvent.

Four Takeaways from the BlackRock-Bitmine Signal

Institutions want ETH exposure, not ETH custody. Bitmine’s structure solves a real problem. BlackRock’s 165% increase confirms demand.

Ethereum’s price and Ethereum’s adoption are decoupled. BUIDL is $2.5 billion proof that institutions use the network. They just do not buy the token.

Whale behavior contradicts the bullish narrative. 160,000 ETH sold in nine days is not accumulation. Large holders are not waiting for the flip.

Bitmine is the new MicroStrategy. The playbook is identical: borrow or raise equity, buy the asset, stake or hold, repeat. The difference is staking yield, which provides carry during drawdowns.

The BlackRock 13F filing confirms what many suspected but few could prove: institutional capital is rotating into crypto equities that hold the underlying assets, not the assets themselves. Bitmine is the clearest expression of this trend. It holds 3.5% of all Ethereum, stakes it for yield, and packages the result into a Nasdaq-traded stock that fits inside traditional portfolio construction.

Whether this trend accelerates or reverses depends partly on Ethereum’s price. But BlackRock’s 165% quarterly increase suggests the firm is not waiting for a bottom. It is positioning for a future where the largest Ethereum treasury is also the most accessible institutional vehicle—and it wants to own as much of that vehicle as possible before the market fully understands what Bitmine has become.