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Tom Lee Blames Ethereum Drop on Quarter-End Window Dressing

Lee says the selling pressure looks like a quarter-end move, while Bitmine added another 27,084 ETH and pushed its holdings closer to 5% of supply.

By Zenz van der Wielen
• 2 min read
Tom Lee Blames Ethereum Drop on Quarter-End Window Dressing

Key Takeaways

  • Tom Lee says Ethereum’s latest slide is tied to quarter-end window dressing, when funds sell weaker positions near the end of a quarter.
  • Ethereum dropped 8% over the past week and is down almost 22% in the last month, lagging Bitcoin.
  • Bitmine added another 27,084 ETH last week and now holds 5,700,040 ETH, with more than 83% of it staked.

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee says Ethereum’s recent weakness is being driven by quarter-end window dressing, a move he says happens when funds dump losing positions just before the quarter closes. His comments come as Bitmine continues to buy more ETH and stays among the largest corporate holders of the asset.

Window Dressing Is Pressuring ETH

Lee said crypto investors had a rough week after ETH fell 8%. In his view, it makes sense that traders would start cutting back on assets that have lagged over the past three months as the end of June approaches. Window dressing is when weaker positions are sold before quarterly results or reporting deadlines so portfolios look cleaner on paper.

The decline also fits into a broader stretch of weakness. Ethereum is down almost 22% over the past month, which is worse than Bitcoin’s 19% drop over the same period. That leaves ETH on pace for a third straight red quarter, though that by itself does not confirm a lasting trend reversal. The wider market backdrop points in the same direction, since Ethereum was also heading toward three consecutive red quarters before, even as signs of recovery were starting to show.

Bitmine Keeps Buying

Even with the market under pressure, Bitmine kept adding to its position. The company bought another 27,084 ETH last week and reported total holdings of 5,700,040 ETH, worth about $9 billion (€7.9 billion). That equals 4.7% of the total ETH supply of 120.7 million tokens and 94% of Bitmine’s own 5% target.

Based on the company’s earlier disclosure, more than 83% of those ETH holdings are staked through the Made in America Validator Network, or MAVAN. In other words, Bitmine is using its ETH not only as a treasury asset, but also to help secure the Ethereum network and earn staking rewards.

Why This Matters

For European crypto readers, the bigger takeaway is how much sway a handful of large buyers now have over Ethereum. If a company like Bitmine is still buying while prices are under pressure, that signals confidence among major holders, but it does not necessarily say much about where the market goes next in the short term. The combination of treasury accumulation and staking also shows that ETH is increasingly being treated as a strategic balance sheet asset, not just something to trade.

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