BitMine Adds 61,000 ETH in Its Biggest Weekly Buy of 2026, Tom Lee Says Crypto Is Outperforming the War
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the world’s largest publicly listed Ethereum treasury, added 60,999 ETH worth approximately $138 million last week, pushing total holdings to 4,595,562 ETH.
The purchase nearly matches the 60,976 ETH added the prior week and is larger than the 45,000–50,000 ETH weekly average from earlier in the year.
Chairman Tom Lee, co-founder of research firm Fundstrat, attributed the stepped-up pace to crypto’s unexpected resilience during geopolitical escalation.
“Since the start of the Iran war, crypto prices have outperformed and Ethereum has outperformed the S&P 500 by 2,450bp,” Lee said in the company’s press release. “This is a meaningful outperformance in a mere two weeks.”
Lee’s framing mirrors an analysis Luxor Technology published earlier this week: that rising oil prices worsen growth expectations, pushing investors toward high-growth assets rather than out of risk entirely. “When investors worry about growth, they buy growth stocks including MAG7, software and crypto,” he said.
ETH climbed roughly 12.9% over the past seven days, reaching a six-week high of $2,301 during Monday trading. BMNR shares rose more than 11% on the day, though the stock has fallen approximately 59% over the past six months as Ethereum sits well below its August 2025 peak of $4,946.
A Direct Buy From the Ethereum Foundation
Within this week’s total, BitMine disclosed a 5,000 ETH purchase made directly from the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit that funds core protocol research, for approximately $10.2 million over the counter.
OTC trades are negotiated privately between parties rather than on a public exchange, letting large volumes move without visibly affecting the open-market price, and allowing the Foundation to raise operating funds without exchange selling.
Of the 4.595 million ETH held, 3,040,515 tokens are staked, locked to validate Ethereum transactions in exchange for protocol rewards, generating approximately $180 million in annualised staking revenue.
Lee said that figure could reach $272 million once MAVAN (Made in America Validator Network), the company’s proprietary staking infrastructure, launches, still on track for Q1 2026. At 3.81% of supply, BitMine is 76% of the way to its “Alchemy of 5%” target, reached in roughly eight months.
Moonshots and Unrealised Losses
Beyond ETH, BitMine increased its stake in Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: ORBS) by $80 million to a total $83 million. Eightco used the capital to acquire a $50 million equity stake in OpenAI and a $25 million stake in Beast Industries, the company behind MrBeast.
Lee joined Eightco’s board last week. Combined holdings, 4.595 million ETH, 196 BTC, the Eightco and Beast stakes, and $1.2 billion in cash, total approximately $11.5 billion.
The ETH position carries an estimated unrealised loss of around $6.5 billion based on DropsTab data against the company’s disclosed cost basis. Lee has previously predicted ETH will eventually reach $250,000 per token.
