cryptobriefing.com
Bitmine Immersion Technologies expanded its Ethereum treasury with a $90 million $ETH purchase last week, even as Chairman Tom Lee described investor sentiment toward crypto as rock bottom.
The company acquired 45,759 $ETH over the past week, bringing total holdings to 4,371,497 $ETH. At a reference price of $1,998 per $ETH, Bitmine’s Ethereum stack is valued at approximately $8.7 billion and represents 3.62% of total $ETH supply.
Lee said the buying reflects conviction rather than momentum trading. Speaking after Consensus Hong Kong, he argued that 2026 could be a defining year for Ethereum, driven by tokenization and privacy adoption on Wall Street, AI agents using Ethereum for payments and verification, and creators embracing proof of human standards on Ethereum layer two networks.
Despite those tailwinds, Lee said market psychology remains depressed. He compared current conditions to the lows of November 2022 and the 2018 crypto winter, noting that unlike prior cycles, the weakness appears tied more to price shock and deleveraging than to major industry collapses.
Bitmine now stakes 3,040,483 $ETH, or roughly 69% of its total holdings, generating annualized staking revenues of $176 million. At scale, the company estimates staking rewards could reach $252 million annually.