BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, bought 45,759 ether last week, extending its buying spree despite the sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices.
The haul was the largest weekly purchase this year in terms of tokens, bringing the company’s total ETH holdings to 4,371,497 tokens, the company said in an update on Monday. That equates to $8.7 billion at current prices, while the company is estimated to have nearly $8 billion in paper losses.
The company also increased its cash reserve to $670 million, along with its small bitcoin. reserves and equity stakes, including a $200 million position in Beast Industries. Total assets stand at $9.6 billion, while BitMine’s share of the total ETH supply increased to 3.62%.
BitMine has now staked more than 3 million ETH (about 69% of its holdings) generating $176 million in annualized rewards, according to president Tom Lee. The company’s staking operations currently yield 2.89% annualized.
Lee said sentiment in crypto markets remains depressed, drawing comparisons to the lows of 2018 and 2022. But he argued that the current environment differs in that there have been no major collapses of the big players.
“Investor sentiment and enthusiasm are at rock bottom, reminding us of the helplessness and despondency seen at the November 2022 lows and the depths of the crypto winter of 2018,” he said. “Rather, it appears that cryptocurrencies have remained weak since the ‘price shock’ and massive deleveraging observed on October 10.”
Lee also highlighted developments from last week’s Consensus Hong Kong conference, where he cited tokenization, artificial intelligence (AI) integrations, and proof-of-humanity infrastructure as long-term growth drivers for Ethereum.
“The price of ETH does not reflect the high utility of ETH and its role as the future of finance,” Lee said. “Therefore, we continue to buy ETH even as cryptocurrencies go through this ‘mini-winter’.”
Read more: Tom Lee says to stop timing the bottom and start buying the dip
