Tom Lee blames crypto weakness on quarter-end ‘window dressing’ as Bitmine adds another $43 million of ETH
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, bought 27,084 ether ($ETH) last week, extending its accumulation streak despite another slide in crypto prices.
The purchase, worth roughly $43 million based on $ETH’s current price of around $1,580, lifted Bitmine’s holdings to 5.7 million $ETH, according to a Monday company update. The stash is worth about $8.9 billion and represents roughly 4.7% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, nearing the firm’s 5% goal.
The company also held 206 bitcoin, $555 million in cash and marketable securities and stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings, bringing total crypto, cash and investment holdings to $9.8 billion.
The latest acquisition was the smallest purchase since early May, down from 52,203 $ETH the previous week and well below the 126,971 $ETH batch earlier this month, suggesting the company is dialing back its buying pace after months of aggressive accumulation. Bitmine nevertheless remains one of the few large digital asset treasury firms still consistently adding to its crypto holdings while many peers have paused purchases amid the market downturn.
Crypto weakness
Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee pointed to quarter-end rebalancing behind the latest bout of weakness in crypto markets with investors cutting their losses as we enter the second-half of the year.
“This past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as $ETH fell by 8%, even as Ethereum witnessed notable positive developments such as the creation of Ethlabs, and even the Bank of England softened its stance around stablecoins,” Lee said in a statement. Bitmine is one of the key backers of Ethlabs, a new Ethereum research organization after a period of turmoil and layoffs at the Ethereum Foundation.
“We are nearing quarter-end for June, and it is not surprising to see ‘window dressing’ leading to investors reducing their holdings in assets which have fallen in the past 3 months,” Lee said.
As it stands, bitcoin and ether are set to book their third consecutive quarterly losses, something that hasn’t happened with bitcoin since 2022 and a first for ether since 2019. BTC is down 12% in 2026 Q2 and $ETH 25% lower, CoinGlass data shows.