The Ether buying company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has made its biggest purchase so far in 2026 as its chairman, Tom Lee, doubled down on the idea of an impending crypto supercycle.
Lee said Tuesday that in the past week, Bitmine bought 111,942 Ether (ETH) after a recent pullback sent the token below $2,200 and presented an “attractive opportunity.” Ether has traded between $2,025 and $2,147 over the past seven days.
He also reiterated his theory of a supercycle ahead for crypto and Ether, driven by Wall Street’s interest in tokenization and artificial intelligence-powered agents.
“We continue to expect a supercycle ahead for crypto and Ethereum, driven by the dual drivers of Wall Street tokenization and agentic AI. And thus, we continue to steadily acquire ETH, with Bitmine now owning nearly 5.4 million ETH tokens,” Lee said.
Source: Bitmine
Bitmine slowed its pace of Ether buys earlier this month after having scooped up over 100,000 ETH a week for three straight weeks. It is the largest Ether treasury company and has consistently bought crypto, even during market downturns, following a business model similar to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy.
Bitmine’s goal is to hold 5% of Ether’s circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens. To reach its target of more than 6 million ETH, Bitmine needs about 644,596 ETH, which Lee said will happen sometime this year.
Ether treasury firms leaning into staking
Bitmine has staked over $4.7 million of its Ether, according to the company, and expects to generate annualized staking revenues of $276 million.
Related: Bitmine’s Tom Lee hints at stock tailwinds after firm considered for Russell 3000
Staking infrastructure provider Everstake said in a report Tuesday that Ether treasury companies are under pressure to generate revenue from staking and other yield strategies as the appeal of public companies just holding the asset has been weakened by interest in spot crypto exchange-traded funds.
Across the wider ecosystem, the amount of staked Ether has hit a new high, with more than 39.2 million, or roughly 32.19% of the supply, locked in and another 3.3 million waiting in the wings, according to the Ethereum Validator Queue. At the same time, the exit queue has about 234,368 Ether waiting to leave.
Over 39.2 million Ether is currently staked. Source: Ethereum Validator Queue
Ether reached an all-time high of $4,946 in August 2025 but has since fallen over 58%. Lee previously argued that Ether’s steep drawdowns may offer a buying opportunity.
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