Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest digital asset company focused on ethereum, said he is seeing increasing signs that the cryptocurrency “mini-winter” is coming to an end and has accelerated his cryptocurrency purchases.
The company reported on Monday that it purchased 101,627 ether coins (ETH) last week, its largest weekly purchase since December 15. At current prices, the purchase is worth approximately more than $230 million, bringing BitMine’s total holdings to 4.97 million ETH.
The move happens to most digital asset finance firms — except Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin – Focused Strategy (MSTR) — buying has been slowed or stopped. BitMine remains one of the last large-scale buyers of Ethereum, providing a steady source of demand for ETH.
BitMine’s total cryptocurrency and cash holdings currently stand at $12.9 billion. In addition to the ETH vault, the company also holds 199 Bitcoin, $1.12 billion in cash and equity, including investments in Beast Industries and Evenco Holdings.
Lee said the firm is seeing signs that the recent decline in cryptocurrency prices is nearing an end, pointing to a rebound in ETH and broader market dynamics.
“Bitmine has been maintaining ETH buying volume growth over the past four weeks as our base case is that ETH is in the final stages of a ‘mini crypto winter,'” Lee said.
He added that since the outbreak of the Iran conflict on February 28, Ethereum has surged from its early February lows and outperformed the stock market, supported by demand related to tokenization and artificial intelligence-related uses.
BitMine also continues to expand its staking business. The company already holds more than 3.3 million ETH, accounting for about two-thirds of its holdings, and has annualized revenue of approximately $221 million.
