BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, purchased 45,759 ether last week, extending its buying spree despite the sharp pullback in crypto prices.
The haul was the largest weekly purchase this year in token terms, bringing the firm’s total ETH holdings to 4,371,497 tokens, the company said in a Monday update. That’s equivalent to $8.7 billion at current prices, while the company is estimated to be sitting on almost $8 billion in paper losses.
The firm also raised its cash pile to $670 million, alongside its small bitcoin stash and equity stakes, including a $200 million position in Beast Industries. Total assets stand at $9.6 billion, while BitMine’s share of ETH’s total supply rose to 3.62%.
BitMine has now staked over 3 million ETH — about 69% of its holdings — that generate $176 million in annualized rewards, according to Chairman Tom Lee. The firm’s staking operations currently yield 2.89% annualized.
Lee said sentiment in crypto markets remains depressed, drawing comparisons to the lows of 2018 and 2022. But he argued the current environment differs in that there have been no major collapses of large players.
“Investor sentiment and enthusiasm are rock bottom, reminding us of the forlornness and dejection seen at the November 2022 lows and depths of 2018 crypto winter,” he said. “Rather, it seems like crypto has remained weak since the ‘price shock’ and massive deleveraging seen on October 10th.”
Lee also highlighted developments from last week’s Consensus Hong Kong conference, where he cited tokenization, artificial intelligence (AI) integrations and proof-of-humanity infrastructure as long-term growth drivers for Ethereum.
“The price of ETH is not reflective of the high utility of ETH and its role as the future of finance,” Lee said. “Hence, we continue to buy ETH even as crypto moves through this ‘mini-winter.'”
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