BitMine Keeps Beating Ethereum After $21 Million Share Buyback
BitMine combined 21 million of its own share buybacks with additional ETH purchases, but the large treasury position is still billions underwater.
Key Takeaways
- BitMine outperformed Ethereum in the first nine months of 2026, while the stock fell 3% and ETH lost 10%.
- The company had already bought back 21 million of its own shares in 2026 and added another 15,112 ETH in the week through October 4.
- BitMine holds about 6.02 million ETH, but Artemis says it is sitting on an unrealized loss of $3.6 billion.
BitMine Immersion Technologies outperformed Ethereum in the first nine months of 2026, even though the picture for investors was mixed. The stock fell 3%, according to chairman Tom Lee, while Ethereum lost 10% over the same period. That put BitMine 731 basis points ahead of its own token, but Lee also pointed out that the comparison looks different once the company’s own ETH position and competitors are taken into account.
Lee Points to Share Buybacks
In the weekly update on October 5, Lee called the gap striking, especially because he said it happened in a bear market. He said BitMine achieved this through several steps, including what he described as the biggest crypto treasury share buyback ever. The company had already bought back 21 million of its own shares in 2026.
BitMine also kept buying Ethereum. In the week through October 4, the company added 15,112 ETH. That brought its stash to about 6.02 million tokens, equal to 4.9% of the total supply.
Loss on the ETH Stash
At the same time, BitMine’s balance sheet shows that the large ETH position is still underwater. According to Artemis, the unrealized loss stood at $3.6 billion (€3.2 billion) on October 6, the biggest amount on the treasury chart. That fits with the company’s aggressive buying strategy, but it also shows how sensitive these positions still are to price swings.
Ethereum was trading around $2,703.67 (€2,410), down 1.07% in 24 hours. The price is still about 45% below the $4,946.05 (€4,410) peak from August 24, 2025. Based on Citi’s 12-month target of $3,028 (€2,700), there would still be about 12% upside from the current level, but under BitMine’s current cost basis that would still not be enough to bring the whole position back into profit.
Why This Matters
For European crypto followers, BitMine is especially interesting because it shows how publicly traded companies keep actively managing their crypto exposure, even in a weak market. The mix of share buybacks, extra ETH purchases, and staking income makes companies like this more than just a simple proxy for Ethereum. In the third quarter, 98% of BitMine’s revenue came from Ethereum staking, which shows how closely the company’s results are tied to the coin.
