Tom Lee’s Bitmine Adds $74M in Ethereum, Declares a Crypto Bull Market ‘Underway’
Bitmine Immersion Technologies added 27,562 ETH, worth roughly $74 million, over the past week, pushing its total holdings to 5,983,940 ETH, or 4.9% of Ethereum’s supply, as chairman Tom Lee declared that a crypto bull market is underway.
- Bitmine’s combined crypto and cash holdings now total $17.1 billion, including 212 BTC, $714 million in cash and marketable securities, and equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings
- About 5.07 million of Bitmine’s ETH, roughly 85% of holdings, is staked and projected to generate $357 million in annualized revenue at current yields
- Lee says institutions remain underweight crypto after AI stocks outperformed earlier in 2026, and expects that gap to close in the fourth quarter
- 5.98M total ETH held by Bitmine (4.9% of supply)
- $74M worth of ETH added in the past week alone
- $17.1B combined crypto and cash holdings
Bitmine’s ETH treasury strategy began June 30, 2025, and the company says it is now 98% of the way to its stated goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, a target it could clear within the next couple of months at its current buying pace, according to a company release distributed via PR Newswire. The stock, BMNR, rose 5.8% in pre-market trading, extending an 8% rally from the prior session as Ethereum touched its highest levels since late January.
The Bull Case Rests on a Rotation Story
Lee’s bull-market call is built on a specific thesis: money that spent early 2026 chasing AI stocks is starting to rotate back into crypto. He points to Ethereum’s performance since June 30 as evidence, up 76% versus a 2% gain for the S&P 500 over the same stretch, a gap he argues institutional allocators will eventually have to address, per CoinDesk’s reporting on the announcement.
“We believe a crypto bull market is underway, having started in late June, driven by rotation from AI back to crypto,” Lee said. “Over the past week, we acquired 27,562 ETH. Bitmine’s track record of consistent buying is unmatched by any public company.”
A Treasury Strategy That Now Doubles as a Yield Business
With 85% of its ETH staked, Bitmine’s holdings aren’t just a directional bet on price. At a 2.62% annualized 7-day yield, the company projects $357 million in current annualized staking revenue, scaling toward a projected $421 million as holdings grow. That turns the treasury into a recurring-revenue engine layered on top of whatever ETH itself does, which is part of why Lee frames the accumulation as a business model rather than a trade.
The CCS read: The bull case here is only as strong as the rotation thesis underneath it. Bitmine’s buying is real and verifiable, but “institutions are underweight and will rotate back” is a forecast, not a fact, and Lee has an obvious incentive to talk his own book given how directly BMNR’s share price tracks ETH sentiment.
Watch whether Bitmine’s pace of accumulation holds up as it closes in on its 5% supply target in the next couple of months, and whether Q4 institutional flows actually validate the rotation-from-AI thesis Lee is basing the call on.
