Public companies with dedicated digital asset treasuries have officially overtaken spot Ethereum ETFs as the largest collective holders of ETH. Together, DATs and ETFs now control approximately 11% of Ethereum’s circulating supply.
The biggest name driving this trend is BitMine Immersion Technologies, ticker BMNR, which holds roughly 5.8 million ETH. That’s about 4.8% of the approximately 120.7 million ETH in circulation.
BitMine’s MicroStrategy-style playbook for Ethereum
BitMine chairman Tom Lee has spearheaded what the company describes as its “Alchemy of 5%” target, a goal to hold 5% of all ETH supply. The company says it has reached roughly 96% of that target.
In March 2026 alone, BitMine scooped up 71,179 ETH in a single transaction. The company has been funding these purchases through equity offerings. BitMine stakes the majority of its holdings, and at the current estimated staking rate of around 3%, a position of 5.8 million ETH generates projected annualized staking revenue reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
How DATs leapfrogged BlackRock and Grayscale
For most of 2024 and into 2025, spot ETH ETFs from heavyweights like BlackRock and Grayscale were the primary vehicles through which institutional money flowed into Ethereum. DAT companies, led by BitMine but also including peers like SharpLink Gaming with an estimated 800,000 to 870,000 ETH, have been buying at a pace that ETF inflows simply haven’t matched. The acceleration picked up throughout 2025 and into 2026 as more public companies began treating Ethereum not as a speculative position but as a core treasury asset.
The key difference between DATs and ETFs is what happens after the purchase. ETFs hold ETH passively. DAT companies stake it, generating yield and effectively earning a return on their treasury in a way that an ETF wrapper currently doesn’t replicate for its shareholders.
What this means for investors
The concentration of nearly 11% of ETH supply in the hands of DATs and ETFs introduces dynamics that didn’t exist even 18 months ago. A significant and growing portion of Ethereum’s circulating tokens is now locked in staking contracts or held in institutional custodial arrangements, effectively reducing the free-floating supply available for trading.
As corporate treasuries grow to control meaningful percentages of a network’s token supply, regulators will inevitably ask questions about market concentration and potential manipulation. A single entity holding nearly 5% of a major Layer 1 network’s supply is unprecedented territory.