BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), recognized as the largest corporate holder of Ether worldwide, recently intensified its acquisition efforts during a significant market downturn. According to a post made on X, the company reported an average purchase price of $4,154 per Ether token over the weekend.
In total, BitMine acquired 202,037 ETH, translating to an investment of approximately $827 million. This initiative forms part of their strategic “opportunistic accumulation phase.” Following this acquisition, BitMine’s total Ether holdings now exceed 3 million tokens, valued at around $13.14 billion. This figure incorporates approximately $12.9 billion in cryptocurrency assets, $104 million in liquid cash, and a $135 million shareholding in Eightco Holdings.
Tom Lee, the company’s Chairman and head of research at Fundstrat, stated that BitMine strategically leveraged the recent decrease in Ether’s price to accelerate its accumulation. He remarked that the significant liquidation events in the crypto market provided an opportunity for BitMine to make these acquisitions.
Lee emphasized that this approach represents a critical milestone toward achieving their overarching goal of holding 5% of the total Ethereum supply. He mentioned, “Volatility creates deleveraging, which can lead to assets trading at substantial discounts to their fundamentals. This presents advantages for long-term investors while posing challenges for traders.”
The backdrop to these purchases was a sharp liquidation event that resulted in a $19 billion drop in market value, leading to widespread selling across major cryptocurrency exchanges. Analysts believe that such a large-scale corporate investment could prompt other treasury-focused companies to consider similar strategies.
Despite the optimistic acquisitions, BitMine’s stock has experienced a decline of 10% over the past week. Recent data from Google Finance highlighted that BMNR was the 22nd most actively traded stock in U.S. markets, with an average trading volume exceeding $3.5 billion. This downturn in stock performance followed a critical report from Kerrisdale Capital, which took a short position against BitMine and deemed its business model “on its way to extinction.”
In light of their latest acquisition, BitMine affirmed that it is now “more than halfway” to reaching its target of controlling 5% of the Ether supply. The company intends to persist in its accumulation strategy, particularly during market corrections, reiterating Lee’s perspective that such situations create favorable conditions for investors at the expense of traders.
For investors considering BitMine as a potential stock option, analyst Ashok Kumar from ThinkEquity has provided a “Buy” rating along with a target price of $60, suggesting about a 13% upside from the company’s most recent trading close.
