BitMine Buys $70M ETH While Tom Lee Revises Bitcoin Prediction

The Tom Lee-led BitMine Immersion Technologies acquired Ether valued $70 million over the past 3 days. According to the official announcement released yesterday, December 1, the company holds 3.73 million ETH tokens and $882 million in unencumbered cash, along with other crypto holdings. The combined holdings come to an estimated $12.1 billion.

The ETH Acquisition Brings BitMine Closer to Its ‘Alchemy of 5%’ Goal

The recent acquisition has pushed ETH holdings of BitMine to more than 3.0% of the total token supply. The acquisition brings the company close to its goal of acquiring 5% of the total supply of Ether, popularly referred to as ‘Alchemy of 5%’. 

Commenting on the latest purchase, Thomas “Tom” Lee of Fundstrat, Chairman of BitMine. stated that in the past week, they stepped up their weekly purchases of ETH by 39% due to upcoming events such as the Fusaka upgrade (Fulu-Osaka), the Fed ending quantitative tightening, and likely cutting rates on December 10. According to him, these events are creating strong bullish tailwinds for Ethereum, and the markets are stabilizing seven weeks after the October 10th liquidation shock. The Fusaka upgrade, also referred to as Fulu-Osaka, was scheduled for activation on December 3rd and is anticipated to deliver an array of improvements in scalability, enhanced security, and usability. 

As of November 30th, the Company’s crypto holdings include 192 Bitcoin (BTC) and  $36 million stake in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS), besides 3,726,499 ETH at $3,008 per ETH. BitMine is the table topper in terms of Ether treasury holdings. In terms of total crypto holding, it lags behind Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly Microstrategy). The firm is supported by major institutional investors, including ARK’s Cathie Wood, MOZAYYX, Founders Fund, Bill Miller III, Pantera, Kraken, DCG, and Galaxy Digital, in addition to personal investor Tom Lee. The company’s annual shareholders meeting is scheduled for January 15, 2026, at the Wynn Las Vegas.

The ETH purchase by BitMine shows increased institutional interest in the crypto even when the market is facing a slowdown. Bitcoin is currently trading below $90k, while Ether is struggling to hold $2.8k zone. Amid the crypto market slump, Tom Lee had revised his bitcoin prediction. 

Tom Lee Revises Bitcoin Prediction

Tom Lee had earlier predicted that Bitcoin would hit an all-time high of $250,000 by the end of 2025. However, he softened his stance last week, saying Bitcoin “maybe” retests its all-time high at the end of the year. Furthermore, Tom Lee stated that he did think Bitcoin could make an all-time high by the end of January, adding that a lot of it would depend on equities recovering, which they expected it to. 

Tom Lee’s Bitcoin prediction revision came amid the crypto market slowdown led by Bitcoin.  

The most valued cryptocurrency has slipped below $90k level amid the market-wide sell-off. Nonetheless, the token is currently showing signs of recovery. The price is hovering at around $86,618.33. The price increased slightly in the past 24 hours, with the market cap touching $1.72 trillion. 

The current recovery of the BTC is largely attributed to the reversal in the stance of the Vanguard Group, the world’s second-largest asset manager. From Tuesday onwards,  Vanguard will allow crypto ETFs and mutual funds to trade on its platform. Besides, the token successfully defended the $85k-$87k support zone. It’s also worth noting that the ETF flows were in green yesterday, with a moderate gain of $8.48 million. 

The crypto natives are now closely watching the upcoming release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index on December 5. The Index is the Federal Reserve’s go-to inflation gauge. Lower-than-expected data would reinforce the ongoing disinflation trend, further boosting the expectations of a December policy cut, a positive sign for the cryptomarket.

Also Read: Yearn Finance Recovers $2.4M following $9M yETH Exploit