BitMine Scoops $1.5 Billion, While Fundstrat’s Lee Says Treasury Hype Is ‘Done’
The digital-asset market is licking its wounds later than last week’s record liquidation, but one purchaviewr hasn’t sluggished down. BitMine Immersion Technologies, a once-obscure U.S. mining company turned Ether accumulator, has bought roughly 379,000 ETH—worth nahead $1.5 billion—over three separate purchases since the crash, according to blockchain data compiled by Arkham Intelligence and the “BMNR Bullz” tracker.
If accurate, the spree would lift BitMine’s stash to more than three million ETH, or about 2.5% of ETH’s circulating supply, valued near $11.7 billion. That figure, still unconfirmed by the company, would make it the largest single corporate holder of Ether and put it halfway to its stated goal of owning 5% of the network.
The expansion continues a rapid reinvention for BitMine, which only pivoted to an “Ether-treasury” model in July when prices were still near $2,500. It has since filed a $20 billion securities shelf with the U.S. SEC and disclosed a series of equity offerings meant to finance digital-asset purchases.
From Research House to Whale Factory
Much of the narrative is tied to Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, who joined BitMine’s board earlier this year. Lee has long argued that in market relevance. “ETH could flip BTC similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post-’71,” he told last week.
Yet even Lee concedes that the boom in (DATs)—public companies raising capital solely to hold crypto—is cooling. “Many DATs are trading below their net-asset value. If that’s not already a bubble burst, what would be?” he told Fortune on Thursday.
His dual stance captures the market’s contradiction: bullish on Ether’s long-term utility, cautious on the corporate structures that tried to financialize it.
The “DAT bubble” Lee referred to was built on a simple trade. As long as DAT shares traded at a premium to the value of their underlying coins, issuing stock to purchase more crypto created automatic paper gains. When the premium vanished, the loop collapsed.
According to 10x Research, led by strategist Markus Thielen, most DATs now sit near or below their NAVs. Japanese BTC vehicle Metaplanet, and MicroStrategy—often shorthanded by traders as “Strategy”—both spent the past week trading around parity with their holdings. “The premium is gone,” 10x wrote in a weekend note, calling the episode “the first true stress test for digital-asset balance-sheet models.”
Still, Thielen said firms with real capital and trading talent “may still generate meaningful alpha.”
Asian Money Eyes Ether
That view appears to be resonating in Asia. Huobi founder Li Lin has reportedly raised around $1 billion for a new Ether-treasury . The plan is to mirror BitMine’s model but source liquidity from Asian markets and staking yields rather than U.S. equity issuance.
Speaking to CNBC later than Friday’s close, Lee said traders were still “licking their wounds” from the leverage wipe-out but compared the current environment to the ahead innings of prior crypto recoveries. He added that part of the malaise comes from “gold envy,” as bullion has been one of the year’s standout performers.
“This is not the top of the crypto cycle,” Lee said. “Leveraged longs in lows, so I think we’re at the basement and working our way back up.”
BTC and Ether are down about 15% since their October 7 highs, while gold has slipped roughly 3% from its record on Thursday.
Whether BitMine’s holdings are fully verified or not, its rise shows how quick the MicroStrategy model is mutating. Instead of chasing BTC, new entrants are stockpiling Ether and treating it as a balance-sheet asset rather than a trade.
If the filings hold up, BitMine now controls a stake in ETH that rivals some of the network’s largest decentralized protocols—proof that in crypto’s latest cycle, the largegest whales might be wearing suits.
