Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an Ethereum-focused crypto asset firm led by Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee, announced on Monday that it had acquired $96,798 of Ether. Ethereum$2,818.32 Until last week, panic buying continued as digital asset government bonds continued to be under pressure due to falling virtual currency prices.
The latest acquisition increases the company’s total ETH holdings to 3.73 million tokens (worth approximately $10.5 billion at the latest price), extending its lead as the largest Ethereum treasury company. The company also holds 192 Bitcoins. BTC$86,208.60$36 million in stock and $882 million in cash in Eightco Holdings (ORBS).
Bitmine stock fell 7.7% pre-market as ETH plummeted 6% overnight to just above $2,800.
The decline in cryptocurrency prices and stock prices has forced many digital asset treasuries (DATs) to withdraw, increasing the heat. While most companies have stopped adding cryptocurrencies to their piles, some have started selling them in hopes of bridging the gap between their stock prices and net asset values.
BitMine was one of the few companies that remained a buy. However, the company is estimated to have nearly $4 billion in unrealized losses in its ETH stash.
Future Ethereum upgrade, Fed policy
Bitmine’s Thomas Lee noted that market conditions and Ethereum’s upcoming network upgrades have been the main motivations for increasing the pace of acquisitions since last week. The Fusaka upgrade is scheduled to go into effect on December 3rd and is designed to improve the scalability, security, and usability of the Ethereum network.
On the macro backdrop, Lee said that while the crypto market has stabilized since the October 10 crash, he expects the Federal Reserve to end quantitative tightening (QT) this month and likely cut interest rates at its December meeting.
“Overall, we believe these are positive tailwinds for ETH price, which is why we have increased our weekly ETH purchases by 39%,” he said in a statement.
