The Ether Machine raises another $654 million worth of Ethereum as holdings approach 500,000 ETH

The Ether Machine announced Tuesday that it raised another 150,000 ETH worth $654 million for its Ethereum treasury in August, cementing its position as the third-largest holder.

The 150,000 ETH was invested by longtime Ethereum supporter Jeffrey Berns, and will be transferred to The Ether Machine's wallet later this week, the company told Reuters. Berns will also join the company's board of directors, according to the outlet.

"This is the largest follow-on investment of any crypto treasury company thus far, bringing our total committed capital up to over $2.5 billion," The Ether Machine posted on X.

"With the landmark commitment from Ethereum originalist Jeff Berns, one of the largest individual investments ever in a crypto treasury company, we now have nearly 500,000 ETH — about $2.5 billion," the firm's co-founder and chairman Andrew Keys added. "That scale gives us unmatched strength and credibility in this market."

The continued accumulation builds on the firm's 10,605 ETH purchase on Aug. 4 and 15,000 ETH buy on Ethereum's 10th anniversary, reflecting The Ether Machine's conviction in ETH and its goal to build a long-term, yield-generating institutional treasury — just two months after it was formed via a merger between the Ether Reserve and blank-check firm Dynamix Corporation.

The deal was originally projected to raise more than $1.6 billion from investors, including Blockchain.com, Kraken, and Pantera Capital. However, The Ether Machine's holdings have already reached 495,362 ETH, worth around $2.14 billion, with another $367 million in capital remaining to acquire further ether ahead of its proposed Nasdaq listing, which is expected to close next quarter.

That treasury total places The Ether Machine behind only Tom Lee's BitMine and Joe Lubin's SharpLink in the strategic ETH reserve rankings, according to data from SER, with those publicly-traded firms holding approximately 1.8 million ETH and 837,000 ETH, respectively.

The Ether Machine is not stopping there, with its third round slated to start on Wednesday. "Citibank is leading our third capital raising round," Keys told Reuters, adding that it would raise at least $500 million.