BitMine Increases Ethereum Holdings Amid Market Volatility; Tom Lee Predicts 100x Ethereum Rise
BitMine Immersion Technologies has added 54,156 ETH, worth approximately $170 million, in the last week, bringing its total Ethereum holdings to 3,559,879 ETH, valued at about $11.1 billion. This makes BitMine's treasury the largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury. In addition to Ethereum, BitMine holds 192 Bitcoin (approximately $18 million) and $607 million in cash, positioning it as the second-largest crypto treasury behind MicroStrategy's roughly $61 billion Bitcoin reserve.
Despite these significant asset acquisitions, BitMine's shares (BMNR) fell about 6% on the day and have declined 35% over the month. Ethereum, currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has decreased more than 11% in the past week and remains roughly 35% below its August all-time high.
Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, maintains a bullish outlook on Ethereum, predicting a potential long-run rise of 100 times in value. Lee highlights a crypto price cycle driven by two major factors and estimates that the market top could be 12 to 36 months away. He attributes the October crypto liquidation event to a market-maker balance-sheet hole that reduced liquidity, describing it as akin to quantitative tightening (QT) in traditional finance, with dampening effects on prices expected to last 6 to 8 weeks, referencing a 2022 QT precedent. Previously, Lee suggested year-end price targets of $150,000 to $200,000 for Bitcoin and around $7,000 for Ethereum.
Furthermore, BitMine announced the appointment of a new CEO on Friday, though the individual's name was not disclosed in the article.
