Bitmine Immersion Technologies CEO Tom Lee says Ether’s “mini-crypto winter” may be in its final stages as the company has purchased another $139 million of ETH, bringing it closer to its goal of capturing 5% of the token’s circulating supply.
Lee said in a statement on Monday that Bitmine has maintained a higher buying pace over the past three weeks as it “base case” expects the end of several months of decline in the Ether (ETH) market.
Cryptocurrency markets crashed last October, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling from its all-time high above $126,000 within a month, while Ether fell from its August high of $4,946. Analysts are debating when cryptocurrency markets will see a significant rebound.
Lee pointed to positive catalysts such as the CLARITY Act’s progress in Congress and the relative stability of cryptocurrencies despite recent turmoil in Iran as signs that winter is beginning to thaw.
“As many have noted, cryptocurrencies, and ETH in particular, have outperformed the broader market since the start of the Iran war, with ETH up 18% and outperforming equities by 2,450 basis points,” he said.
“This is a stark contrast to gold, the traditional store of value, which has fallen by more than 15%. Cryptocurrencies are proving to be a good store of value in times of war,” Lee added.
Lee’s statements come after Bitmine revealed that it purchased an additional 65,341 Ether (worth $139 million) last week, bringing its total holdings to over 4.6 million tokens.
Bitmine is getting closer to its Ether accumulation goal
Bitmine has amassed approximately 3.86% of its total circulating supply of 120.6 million since it announced cryptocurrency trading eight months ago.
To reach its goal based on the current total supply, the company will need to purchase approximately 1.4 million tokens, which CoinGecko estimates will cost approximately $2.9 billion at current prices.
Ether has no steady supply; may augment or decrease depending on whether more is burned than spent.
Related: Early Ethereum whale rebuilds stack by purchasing $19.5 million of ETH
The company has also leaned heavily on staking, with over three million Ether currently staked.
Bitmine also reported other holdings, including $1.1 billion in cash, 196 Bitcoin, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, the media company founded by YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, and a $95 million stake in e-commerce inventory management platform Eightco Holdings.
In 2025, a flood of companies focused on cryptocurrencies, with Bitmine becoming the second largest behind Michael Saylor’s strategy in terms of shares. But some, such as international bank Standard Chartered, predict that not all will survive in the long term, which could force them to adopt novel strategies or disappear.
StrategicEthReserve is currently available tracking 67 gigantic holders of the Ether treasure, with Bitmine leading by a gigantic margin. SharpLink Gaming, which was in first place before being overtaken by Bitmine, is second with 863,000 Ether, while Ether Machine is third with 496,000 tokens.
