Tom Lee's Bitmine bought more ether, added to stock buyback last week

Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, bought 10,399 ether ($ETH) during last week as Chairman Tom Lee pointed to ether's strongest monthly performance against the Nasdaq in a year as evidence that crypto is recovering.

The purchase, worth roughly $19.1 million at $ETH’s current price of $1,840, lifted Bitmine's holdings to almost 5.8 million $ETH, or about 4.8% of Ethereum's circulating supply, according to the company's Monday update.

The latest acquisition was broadly in line with the previous week's 9,946 $ETH purchase, extending Bitmine's streak of weekly ether buys since adopting its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025.

The company also bought back 4.5 million shares of its common stock, bringing total recent repurchases to 16 million shares.

The update comes as Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder, disclosed another sale of bitcoin. The company trimmed its treasury by 1,638 BTC, worth about $105 million, while repurchasing $81.2 million of its STRC preferred stock. Strategy also raised $290 million through sales of common shares.

Lee tied the company's outlook to ether's relative strength against technology stocks.

"In July, $ETH outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 2,500 basis points," Lee said in the statement. "This is the largest outperformance since July 2025, and we believe it is reflective of the strengthening fundamentals of crypto."

He noted that the last time $ETH posted a similar monthly outperformance — in July 2025 — the second largest cryptocurrency rallied from about $2,375 to more than $4,000 by the end of the following month.

Lee also argued that strong relative performance by ether has historically preceded gains in Bitmine's stock since the company pivoted to its Ethereum treasury strategy.

Bitmine's crypto, cash and marketable securities totaled $11.3 billion as of August 2. Besides its $ETH holdings, the company owns 209 bitcoin, $173 million in cash and marketable securities and equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.

The company has staked 4.9 million $ETH, about 85% of its holdings, and projects annualized staking revenue of roughly $247 million through its MAVAN staking platform.

Shares are down 2.1% premarket as ether dipped over the weekend to $1,842.