Bitmine bought $75 million ether as Tom Lee says institutions are still underweight crypto
The largest Ethereum-centric treasury firm kept buying, while its chairman argued ETH’s strong third quarter could push institutions to increase crypto exposure.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR$27.59·Market Closed, the largest Ethereum treasury firm, bought another 27,562 ether ETH$2,716.16 last week, maintaining its steady buying as Chairman Tom Lee argued institutional investors remain underexposed to crypto.
The purchase was worth about $75.2 million at Monday’s ether price of $2,727, lifting Bitmine’s holdings to 5,983,940 ETH. That’s about 4.9% of the token’s 122.1 million supply, keeping the company close to its goal of owning 5%.
The firm has been buying at a similar pace in recent weeks and, at that rate, could reach its accumulation goal in the next couple of months. The company said it bought ether every week since June 2025, when it pivoted to a crypto treasury strategy.
Bitmine has staked about 5 million ETH, roughly 85% of its holdings, and projected a staking revenue of roughly $357 million annually at current yields.
Bitmine shares were 5.8% higher pre-market, extending Friday’s 8% rally as ETH surged overnight to a fresh high since late January.
Tom Lee, meanwhile, said institutional investors may be playing catch-up after favoring artificial intelligence-linked stocks earlier in the year.
Since the end of June, ETH has risen 76%, far more than the S&P 500’s modest 2% gain, outperforming the stock index. Lee said that kind of gap could draw more attention from fund managers who have stayed light on crypto this year.
“Given institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final three months of 2026,” Lee said.
He also pointed to tokenization and the growing use of blockchain in AI as longer-term reasons institutions may increase their exposure.
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Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Bitmine's $75M ETH purchase signals continued conviction in Ethereum amid a sector narrative that institutional capital remains structurally underallocated to crypto. The timing—paired with Tom Lee's public commentary on institutional underweight—suggests coordinated messaging around a potential repositioning window. This matters because large treasury deployments by crypto-native firms often precede broader institutional flows, particularly when tied to earnings or market-narrative shifts.
Lee's framing that institutions remain underweight despite crypto's market capitalization and maturity touches on a persistent structural gap. If true, it implies substantial dry powder could theoretically flow toward ETH and broader digital assets. However, the mechanism remains unclear: regulatory uncertainty, custody constraints, and portfolio allocation frameworks still limit institutional entry velocity. Bitmine's actions are a data point, not a catalyst guarantee.
The ETH focus is notable. Bitmine's Ethereum-specific mandate means these buys don't signal broad crypto acceptance, but rather confidence in Ethereum's positioning post-Shanghai and relative to Bitcoin. Watch whether other treasury firms follow or whether this remains an isolated bet by an already-committed player.