Tom Lee's Bitmine favors share buybacks to ether purchases as crypto declines — SkimNews
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- Bitmine bought 2.04 million shares at an average price of $22.48 last week for about $45.9 million, its first buyback since Aug. 17; the preceding five-week repurchase phase totaled roughly 21 million shares for $350 million.
- Bitmine has spent nearly $400 million on 22.9 million shares year to date and said it will keep repurchasing stock when management considers the shares undervalued.
- Bitmine acquired 10,452 ETH for roughly $24.5 million, slowing from 12,535 ETH purchased the previous week.
- Bitmine's holdings reached 6,051,933 ETH, about 4.95% of Ethereum's 122.2 million token supply, leaving the company roughly 58,000 ETH short of its 5% goal.
- Bitmine has staked about 5.23 million ETH, or 86% of its holdings, and projects roughly $318 million in annualized staking revenue at current yields.
- Tom Lee said the selloff reflected the same risk-off forces behind AI stocks, noting ETH was down 13% from its recent peak while U.S. semiconductors ($SOXX) were down 20% over the same period, and argued a crypto bull market was underway.
Why it matters: With $45.9 million directed to repurchases versus $24.5 million toward new ether, Bitmine is putting more capital into its own stock as it sits roughly 58,000 ETH short of 5%. The mix slows its accumulation push even as nearly $400 million has already been spent on year-to-date buybacks.
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