Bitmine Buys $75 Million in ETH as Tom Lee Bets on Inflows
Bitmine keeps building its Ethereum stash and is now close to 5% of supply. Tom Lee sees room for institutional catch-up buying, helped by staking and tokenization.
Key Takeaways
- Bitmine bought about $75.2 million worth of Ethereum and increased its stash to 5,983,940 ETH.
- The company now holds about 4.9% of the total ETH supply and wants to keep scaling toward 5%.
- Tom Lee says institutional investors still hold too little crypto and may step in later this year.
Bitmine has once again bought about $75.2 million (€65.6 million) worth of Ethereum, further expanding its position. According to chairman Tom Lee, institutional investors are still underweight crypto, even as ETH has risen sharply this year.
Bitmine's New Purchase
The purchase was made at an ether price of $2,727 (€2,380) and brought Bitmine's total stash to 5,983,940 ETH. That is about 4.9% of the total supply of 122.1 million tokens, keeping the company close to its 5% target.
Bitmine has been buying at a similar pace for weeks. The company said it has bought ether every week since June 2025, after it switched to a crypto treasury strategy at that time. Based on that pace, the company could reach its goal within a few months.
The company has now staked about 5 million ETH, equal to roughly 85% of its total stash. At current yields, Bitmine expects annual staking revenue of about $357 million (€312 million).
Tom Lee Points to the Gap
Lee said institutional investors may be playing catch-up after favoring stocks tied to artificial intelligence earlier this year. Since the end of June, ETH has climbed 76%, while the S&P 500 gained just 2% over the same period.
According to Lee, that gap could push fund managers to pay more attention to crypto later this year. He also pointed to tokenization and the growing use of blockchain in AI as reasons institutions may further increase their exposure.
Bitmine is not the only company still adding ETH to its balance sheet. Other treasury companies also kept buying over the past few weeks, despite a weak September market.
Why This Matters
For European crypto readers, this shows that big players see Ethereum not just as a trading asset, but also as a balance sheet position and a source of staking income. That makes ETH more useful for institutional investors than just price speculation. The mix of treasury buying, staking, and a stronger institutional story could therefore stay relevant outside the United States too.
