ETH 'mini-crypto winter' ending as Bitmine reaches 77% of acquisition target, says chair
After purchasing an additional $139 million worth of Ether last week, Bitmine Immersion Technologies now controls 4.6 million ETH tokens.
Tom Lee, the chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, has indicated that the "mini-crypto winter" affecting Ether may be coming to a close, following the company's latest $139 million ETH acquisition last week, which moves it closer to achieving its target of accumulating 5% of the cryptocurrency's total supply.
In a Monday statement, Lee revealed that Bitmine has sustained an accelerated purchasing rate throughout the previous three weeks, as the company anticipates an end to the multi-month Ether downturn in its "base case" scenario.
The cryptocurrency markets experienced a crash in October of last year, with Bitcoin (BTC) dropping from its record high exceeding $126,000 achieved during that month, while Ether saw a decline from its August peak of $4,946. Market analysts have been engaged in discussions about when the cryptocurrency markets will experience a substantial recovery.
Among the positive catalysts Lee highlighted were the progress of the CLARITY Act through Congress and cryptocurrency's relative resilience amid recent upheaval in Iran, which he views as indicators that the winter period is beginning to thaw.
"As many have noticed, crypto and particularly ETH have outperformed the broader market since the Iran war commenced, with ETH rising 18% and outperforming equities by 2,450 basis points,"
Tom Lee
"This is a marked contrast to Gold, a traditional store of value, which has fallen more than 15%. Crypto is demonstrating itself to be a good 'wartime' store of value."
Tom Lee
Lee's commentary followed Bitmine's announcement that the company had acquired an additional 65,341 Ether over the previous week (valued at $139 million), pushing total holdings beyond 4.6 million tokens.
Bitmine nears Ether accumulation goal
Since declaring its cryptocurrency pivot approximately eight months ago, Bitmine has accumulated approximately 3.86% of the total circulating supply of 120.6 million tokens.
Based on the current total supply, the company would need to acquire approximately 1.4 million additional tokens to achieve its stated goal, which would require roughly $2.9 billion at present prices, according to data from CoinGecko.
Unlike cryptocurrencies with fixed supplies, Ether's total supply can fluctuate based on whether the amount burned exceeds the amount issued.
The company has also made significant investments in staking, with over three million of its Ether tokens currently staked.
Additional holdings reported by Bitmine include $1.1 billion in cash reserves, 196 Bitcoin, a $200 million investment in Beast Industries, a media enterprise established by YouTuber Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, and a $95 million position in Eightco Holdings, an e-commerce inventory management platform.
Throughout 2025, numerous companies made strategic pivots to cryptocurrency, with Bitmine ascending to become the second-largest holder behind Michael Saylor's Strategy in terms of total holdings. However, some institutions, such as the multinational banking corporation Standard Chartered, have forecasted that not all of these companies will endure long-term, potentially forcing them to implement new strategic approaches or ultimately disappear.
Currently, StrategicEthReserve monitors 67 significant treasury holders of Ether, with Bitmine commanding the top position by a substantial margin. SharpLink Gaming, which previously occupied the leading position before Bitmine overtook it, currently holds second place with 863,000 Ether, while Ether Machine occupies the third position with 496,000 tokens.