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ETHEREUM

BitMine Adds 27,562 ETH as Tom Lee Says Institutions Remain Underweight Crypto

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BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) added 27,562 ETH to its treasury last week, a position worth roughly $74 million to $75 million at recent Ether prices. The purchase lifted its holdings to nearly 5.98 million ETH as Chairman Tom Lee argued that institutional investors remain underweight crypto heading into the fourth quarter.

BitMine Ethereum Holdings Approach 6 Million ETH

BitMine held 5,983,940 ETH as of Sept. 20, according to its latest company update. Using the $2,688 Ether reference price cited by the company, those holdings were worth about $16.1 billion.

The company said its ETH position represented about 4.9% of Ethereum’s approximately 122.1 million-token supply at the time. BitMine has set a target of accumulating 5% of the supply under what it calls its “Alchemy of 5%” strategy.

BitMine did not disclose the average price paid for the latest 27,562 ETH. At the reference price used in its announcement, the added tokens were worth about $74.1 million.

Lee Says Institutions Remain Underweight Crypto

Lee argued that institutional investors had maintained relatively low crypto exposure during 2026, partly because of the strong performance of artificial intelligence stocks earlier in the year. He expects that allocation to increase during the final three months of 2026. That remains BitMine management’s market outlook rather than a confirmed institutional positioning trend.

“Given institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final 3 months of 2026.”

BitMine Continues Weekly ETH Purchases

Lee said BitMine has purchased Ether every week since launching its ETH treasury strategy on June 30, 2025. The company has continued accumulating as it approaches its stated 5% ownership target.

BitMine also reported 5,067,309 ETH staked as of Sept. 20, worth about $13.6 billion at the company’s reference price. That represents roughly 85% of its total Ether holdings.

Total Holdings Reach $17.1 Billion

BitMine valued its combined crypto holdings, cash, marketable securities and disclosed equity investments at $17.1 billion. The total included $714 million in cash and marketable securities, 212 Bitcoin and investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.

Lee also said he believes a crypto bull market began in late June and pointed to Ether’s third-quarter performance as support for that view. Those comments represent BitMine’s market assessment and do not establish how institutions will allocate capital during the fourth quarter.

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