The largest Ethereum financial company, BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), purchased 45,759 Ethereum coins Cryptocurrency prices extended their buying spree last week despite a sharp pullback.
The company said in an update on Monday that this was the largest weekly purchase of the year in terms of tokens, bringing the company’s total ETH holdings to 4,371,497 tokens. At current prices, that’s equivalent to $8.7 billion, and the company expects to face a paper loss of nearly $8 billion.
The company also increased its cash reserves to $670 million, while also holding a small amount of Bitcoin Collections and holdings, including a $200 million position in Beast Industries. Total assets are $9.6 billion, while BitMine’s share of the total ETH supply rose to 3.62%.
Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, said that it currently has more than 3 million ETH pledged (about 69% of its holdings), generating $176 million in rewards every year. The company’s pledge business currently has an annualized rate of return of 2.89%.
Lee said sentiment in the cryptocurrency market remains subdued compared to the lows in 2018 and 2022. But he believes the current environment is different in that there have been no major failures by large players.
“Investor sentiment and enthusiasm have hit rock bottom, reminding us of the loneliness and frustration we saw at the November 2022 lows and the depths of the 2018 crypto winter,” he said. “In contrast, cryptocurrencies appear to remain weak since the October 10 ‘price shock’ and massive deleveraging.”
Lee also highlighted progress from last week’s Consensus conference in Hong Kong, where he pointed to tokenization, artificial intelligence (AI) integration, and proof-of-humanity infrastructure as long-term growth drivers for Ethereum.
“The price of ETH does not reflect the high utility of ETH and its role as the future of finance,” Lee said. “So even though cryptocurrencies are going through this ‘little winter,’ we will continue to buy ETH.”
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