On Monday, American entrepreneur Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersions’ Inc. reported that it had scooped another 126,971 Ether (ETH) over the past week, worth almost $213 million according to prevailing market value. The development comes at a time when ETH is struggling to hold a bullish market structure.
Bitmine’s ETH holdings surpass 5.5 million
With the latest acquisition, Bitmine’s ETH holdings have officially shot past the 5.5 million figure. As of Monday, Bitmine holds a total of 5.54 million ETH, worth approximately $9.3 billion according to current market prices. Commenting, Lee said:
“We increased our buying as we believe this pullback in ETH prices does not reflect the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals.”
He added that Bitmine has staked 4.72 million ETH, and that the projected annualized staking rewards are expected to be around $230 million.
Notably, Bitmine’s latest purchase has pulled the firm’s average ETH cost slightly down, to $3,460 per unit. As of Monday, the entity’s total ETH position is $9.88 billion in loss, raising questions about the company’s digital assets strategy.
The following data from Coingecko sheds light at the rapid pace at which Bitmine has been accumulating ETH over the past year or so. Currently, the firm holds about 4.59 percent of ETH’s total circulating supply, very close to its publicly stated 5 percent target.
In comparison, SharpLink – the second entity in the list – holds just 868,699 ETH. While it’s no small amount (worth slightly more than $1.46 billion), it pales in comparison to Bitmine’s ETH holdings. The other 3 firms that round up the top 5 are The Ether Machine, Bit Digital, and Coinbase Global.
Data from Yahoo! Finance shows that Bitmine’s shares were up 7.32 percent in pre-market hours, trading at $17.07. However, the stock is down 52.33 percent over the past 6 months, replicating the weakness observed in ETH’s price action in similar duration.
ETH’s fortune hinges on $1,600 support level
ETH’s price is down 26.7 percent over the past month, tumbling from just over $2,330 on May 8, to $1,695 as of Monday. Crypto analyst Jelle remarked that a lot will depend on whether ETH’s able to bounce off the $1,600 support level.
Meanwhile, exchange data doesn’t paint a positive outlook for ETH. On Thursday, ETH exchange reserves rose above 15.07 million. Data also shows that while ETH whales are dumping the cryptocurrency, retail investors are still buying it in volume.
