BitMine Shares Stop Bleeding on $195 Million Ethereum Buy

BitMine Immersion Technologies added $195 million worth of Ethereum to its stockpile last week, as its stock price fell to a four-month low, according to a Monday press release.

Although the value of BitMine’s Ethereum holdings have recently plunged, the company said that it now owns 3% of the assets total supply, equating to 3.63 million Ethereum. The company’s reserves were valued at $10.1 billion, based on current prices.

BitMine’s shares jumped 10% on Monday to $28. However, after falling as low as $24.33 last week, the company’s stock price remained down 43% over the past month, according to Yahoo Finance. Several crypto-Buying firms, including Strategy, have faced similar declines.

The amount of Ethereum that BitMine owns increased 1.9% from the prior week, with its acquisition of 69,822 Ethereum being its second smallest purchase of the year. At times, the company has added as much as 373,000 Ethereum to its stockpile.

The purchase may be small, but it still comes at a bold time, according to CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill, who told Decrypt that crypto-buying firms are facing elevated scrutiny as their market caps teeter toward the value of their digital assets.

“It’s quite a bold move, given the sentiment toward [crypto treasury firms] at the moment,” he said. “It does suggest that they are seeking strategic moments, from a price perspective.”

BitMine didn’t explain in the press release how its latest purchase was funded, but it did report an increase in unencumbered cash to $800 million from $607 million. The company still held 192 Bitcoin, in addition to a $38 million stake in crypto treasury firm tied to Worldcoin.

Decrypt has reached out to BitMine for comment.

The company highlighted efforts to establish a network of Ethereum validators, reiterating that the infrastructure is scheduled to be deployed early next year.

In a statement, BitMine Chairman and Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee acknowledged a “continued decline in crypto prices,” attributing the route to a historic wave of liquidations that saw $19 billion worth of leveraged crypto trades forcibly closed.

Last week, Ethereum’s price fell to a four-month low of $2,680, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. After recovering some losses this weekend, Ethereum’s price recently hovered around $2,859, showing a 2.2% increase over the past day. In a Myriad prediction market, just 32% of respondents believe Ethereum will jump to $4,000 in its next big move, a trendline underscoring recent pessimism about the asset. Myriad is a unit of Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt. 

Lee said that Ethereum’s price, although beaten, may not fall much further.

“A few weeks ago, we noted the likely downside for ETH prices would be around $2,500 and current ETH prices are basically there,” he said. “This implies asymmetric risk/reward as the downside is 5% to 7%, while the upside is the supercycle ahead for Ethereum."