A second major corporate player in the cryptocurrency market is emulating the approach of the first. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, led by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, recently acquired 101,901 ether, valued at approximately $234 million. This purchase is comparable to the regular weekly buys made by Strategy, a digital treasury company headed by Michael Saylor, as highlighted by crypto trader Luke Martin.
Strategy's typical weekly purchases range from $200 million to $300 million, excluding large buys fueled by the sale of its perpetual preferred stock, STRC. The purchase marks Bitmine's largest weekly accumulation of ether in 2026, following a four-month trend of increasing buys that started at around $76 million per week in early January. The firm now holds over 5 million tokens, representing about 4.21% of the circulating supply of the second-largest cryptocurrency.
This development is significant because Bitmine is now the only major corporate crypto buyer keeping pace with Strategy. Most digital asset treasury companies slowed or paused their accumulation during the February price drop, but Bitmine has continued to buy, with Lee suggesting that ETH is in the late stages of a 'mini-crypto winter' and a bottom is forming in equity markets. The firm has staked approximately 73% of its tokens, generating around $264 million in annualized revenue from yield, with total crypto and cash holdings at $13.3 billion as of early April. Both firms employ similar capital markets strategies to purchase crypto assets, with Strategy using preferred stock and convertible debt, and Bitmine using equity issuance.
Despite facing pressure in February and early March due to unrealized losses, Bitmine maintained its buying pace, and two months later, ether has risen 22% from its February lows. Strategy's April 21 purchase of $2.54 billion remains the largest single corporate crypto buy of the year, but Bitmine's $234 million purchase is the first time the structural baselines have come close to each other. If this pattern continues, ether may have a consistent corporate buyer absorbing supply each week, regardless of price.