Bitmine Ignores $7.8B Paper Losses, Buys $83M Worth of ETH as Market Dips

Tom Lee’s BitMine added 40,000 ETH during the dip, brushing off $7.8 billion losses as Ethereum trades near lows.

BitMine, the Ethereum-focused treasury firm chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, bought roughly $83 million worth of ETH on Monday, with its existing holdings sitting deep in the red.

The purchases came during another volatile session for Ethereum, with on-chain data showing heavy selling from other large holders and ETH trading near multi-month lows.

BitMine Adds to ETH Stash While Others Exit

Data from the analytics platform Lookonchain, posted on February 10 and 11, shows Bitmine executed two large purchases of 20,000 ETH each from institutional platforms BitGo and FalconX.

Last week, the firm bought 40,613 ETH, and the week prior, it added 41,788 tokens. It now holds approximately 4.32 million ETH, acquired at an average cost of $3,850 per coin. However, at current levels around $2,040, Lookonchain estimates BitMine’s average entry price leaves its position down more than $7.8 billion on paper.

Despite that, Lee has publicly dismissed the recent sell-off as disconnected from Ethereum’s on-chain activity. In comments reported earlier this month, he said BitMine viewed the pullback as attractive, given his view of strengthening Ethereum fundamentals, such as record-high daily transactions. He attributed the price weakness to factors like a rally in gold and a lack of leverage rather than problems with the Ethereum network itself.

Lee also stressed that Bitmine has no debt obligations that would force it to sell any of its ETH, a position that is in contrast to other large players like Trend Research, which, according to Lookonchain, has sold nearly all of its Ethereum since early February, locking in losses of about $747 million after depositing more than 650,000 ETH to Binance during the drop.

Ethereum Price Struggles Amid Heavy On-Chain Movement

Looking at the market, ETH is down about 1% over the past 24 hours, and nearly 13% in the last seven days. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has also lost more than 34% of its value over the past month, according to CoinGecko data.

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It fell below $2,000 on February 5 for the first time in months, but despite the volatility and evident selling from some large holders, other data points to a potential reduction in available sell pressure. For example, analyst CoinNiel recently reported that exchange reserves for ETH have dropped to multi-year lows, suggesting longer-term holders are moving assets off trading platforms.

The market now presents a clear divide: one side is cutting losses after a severe downturn, while the other, led by firms like Bitmine, is doubling down on a long-term conviction play, betting that current prices do not reflect the network’s underlying utility.