Bitmine bought the dip, making its biggest ether purchase in 2026 as prices tanked
The company bought 126,971 ETH last week, worth roughly $214 million at current prices, despite chairman Tom Lee’s earlier calls to slow purchases.
What to know:
- Bitmine bought 126,971 ether last week, bringing the firm’s total crypto, cash and investment holdings to $9.9 billion.
- That was the company’s biggest weekly acquisition in 2026 despite earlier calls for slowing purchases.
- “We increased our buying as we believe this pullback in ETH prices does not reflect the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals,” chairman Tom Lee said.
The purchase lifted the firm’s total holdings to 5.54 million ETH, worth some $9.3 billion at current prices, according to the report. The firm also held $247 million in cash, some bitcoin and stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.
The acquisition marks a reversal from the company’s previous call to slow down accumulation as it nears its goal to corner 5% of ether’s outstanding supply. The company now holds 4.59% of the token’s supply and is set to reach the 5% goal later this year.
“We increased our buying as we believe this pullback in ETH prices does not reflect the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals,” Bitmine chairman Thomas Lee said in a statement.
Bitmine has remained one of the few large digital asset treasury firms still actively adding to its crypto holdings, while most peers have halted purchases and pivoted to sell as crypto prices turned sharply lower since October. That bet is sitting on an estimated $9.6 billion of paper losses as ETH fell to its weakest price in more than a year, down some 65% from its August record.
