A second major corporate player in the cryptocurrency market is mirroring the buying patterns of the first. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, led by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, has purchased 101,901 ether, valued at approximately $234 million, marking its largest weekly purchase this year.
This move brings Bitmine's buying pace closer to that of Strategy, the Michael Saylor-led digital treasury company, as noted by crypto trader Luke Martin. Strategy's typical weekly purchases range from $200 million to $300 million, excluding large buys fueled by at-the-market sales of its perpetual preferred stock. Bitmine's purchase caps a four-month streak of increasing buys, starting at around $76 million per week in January, and now holds over 5 million tokens, representing about 4.21% of the circulating supply of the second-largest cryptocurrency.
This development is significant as Bitmine is now the only major corporate crypto buyer keeping pace with Strategy. Most digital asset treasury companies paused or slowed accumulation during the February price drop, while Lee believes that ETH is in the late stages of a 'mini-crypto winter' and that a bottom is forming in equity markets. Bitmine has staked around 73% of its tokens, generating approximately $264 million in annualized revenue from yield, with total crypto and cash holdings at $13.3 billion as of early April.
Both firms share a strategy of using capital markets activity to purchase crypto assets, with Bitmine's approach put to the test in February and March when it faced nearly $8 billion in unrealized losses. However, the firm continued buying, and two months later, ether has risen 22% from its February lows, with Bitmine's accumulation pace not only holding but accelerating.
While Strategy's April 21 purchase of $2.54 billion remains the largest single corporate crypto buy of the year, Bitmine's $234 million purchase is the first time the structural baselines have come within striking distance of each other, potentially paving the way for ether to have a consistent corporate buyer absorbing supply each week, regardless of price.