Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) said on Monday it bought 65,341 ether (ETH) last week, extending a recent surge in buying as the company continues to struggle with the market downturn.
According to an update on Monday, the latest acquisition is worth approximately $138 million at current ETH prices, bringing the company’s total holdings to more than 4.66 million tokens, accounting for 3.86% of ETH’s circulating supply.
Bitmine has now increased its buying pace for three consecutive weeks, above its previous average of around 50,000 tokens per week. At the same time, the company also increased its cash holdings to $1.1 billion.
Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee said the accelerated pace of buying reflects the company’s view that the cryptocurrency market is nearing the end of a long downturn.
“Our base case is that ETH is in the final stages of a ‘mini crypto winter,'” he said in a statement.
DropsTab data shows that the company still faces about $7 billion in unrealized losses on its purchases of ether as cryptocurrency prices have plummeted over the past few months.
