Bitmine buys more ether as Tom Lee says rising ETH/BTC ratio points to stronger crypto prices
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- Bitmine purchased 9,946 ETH last week (~$19.4 million), lifting total holdings to 5,787,414 ETH ($11.2 billion) — roughly 4.8% of Ethereum's circulating supply and within reach of its stated 5% target.
- Bitmine expanded share repurchases to 6.1 million shares (up from 5.5 million the prior week) under its $4 billion buyback authorization.
- Tom Lee cited the ETH/BTC ratio hitting a three-month high of 0.3000 as a bullish sign, framing it as evidence of strengthening crypto prices despite falling odds the CLARITY Act passes in 2026.
- Ether rallied roughly 24% over the past month, outperforming bitcoin's 8% gain in the CoinDesk 20 index, and hit a 10-week high on Monday with $2,000 and $2,500 flagged as the next technical levels to watch.
- Bitmine's purchase pace has slowed sharply — 9,946 ETH this week versus tens of thousands per week earlier in 2025 — but the company has added to its treasury every week since launching the strategy in June 2025.
Why it matters: Bitmine now controls roughly 4.8% of all ETH in circulation, making its accumulation pace a direct read on institutional appetite for ether over bitcoin. Ether's 24% monthly gain versus bitcoin's 8% concretely validates the ETH-outperformance thesis Lee is publicly betting on, and Bitmine's $4 billion share buyback authority shows the company is still deploying capital behind that call even as weekly purchase volumes have decelerated.
