Tom Lee says the mini-crypto winter will end as Bitmine approaches its ETH goal.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee said the company may be in the final stages of Ether's “mini-crypto winter” with another $139 million worth of ETH bought, bringing it closer to its goal of achieving 5% of the token's distribution supply.
In a statement on Monday, Lee said that Bitcoin has maintained a strong buying momentum for the past three weeks as it expects the multi-month Ether (ETH) decline to wrap up as a “fundamental holding”.
Crypto markets crashed in October last year, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling from a peak of more than $126,000 during the month, while Ether fell from $4,946 in August. Analysts have been arguing that crypto markets are seeing a meaningful recovery.
Lee pointed to positive indicators such as the CLARITY Act progressing through Congress and the relative stability of crypto despite recent unrest in Iran.
“As many have noticed, crypto and especially ETH have dominated the broader market since the start of the Iran war, ETH has risen by 18% and equity is more than 2,450 points,” he said.
Lee added: “This is in stark contrast to gold, the traditional store of value, which has fallen over 15%.”
Lee's comments come as Bitcoin announced last week that it had bought an additional 65,341 ether (worth $139 million), bringing its total holdings to more than 4.6 million tokens.
The goal of bituminous ether accumulation is proposed
Since Bitmin announced its crypto pivot eight months ago, it has accumulated 3.86% of its total supply of 120.6 million.
Based on the current total supply, the company would need to purchase approximately 1.4 million tokens to reach its goal, which would cost about $2.9 billion at current prices, according to Koingeco.
Ether does not have a fixed supply; It can be increased or decreased depending on whether it is burned more than given.
Related: Early Ethereum Well Rebuilds Stack with $19.5M in ETH Purchases
The company currently has more than three million Ether in stock.
Bitmin reported other holdings including $1.1 billion in cash, 196 Bitcoin, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, a media company founded by YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, and $95 million in e-commerce inventory management platform Eightco Holdings.
In the year In 2025, a flood of companies headed into crypto, with Bitmain ranking second in holdings behind Michael Saylor's strategy. However, some, like International Bank Standard Chartered, predict that not all will survive in the long term, forcing them to adopt new strategies or fade away.
StrategicEthReserve currently tracks 67 of the largest Ether reserves, with Bitcoin leading by a large margin. SharpLink Gaming held the top position before the exit of Bitmine and is in second place with 863,000 Ether, Ether Machine is in third place with 496,000 tokens.
Magazine: Google Flags Crypto Malware, Retiree Loses $840K in ‘Professional' Scam: Hodler's Digest, March 15 – 21
