Tom Lee says crypto bull market is underway as Bitmine nears 5% ETH target

Bitmine bought 27,562 ETH since its previous update on Sept. 14, bringing its Ethereum holdings to 5,983,940 ETH. The holdings were worth around $16.3 billion at current prices. Bitmine did not disclose the average purchase price for the latest acquisition. At current prices, the acquisition was worth around $75 million. Bitmine said its total crypto, cash, marketable securities and other investments stood at $17.1 billion. Chairman Tom Lee said the company believes a crypto bull market began in late June. Lee attributed the market to factors including a rotation from artificial intelligence to crypto, stronger crypto fundamentals centered on tokenization and AI, and the end of the four-year cycle. Lee said ETH was outperforming other macro assets by 6,519 basis points quarter to date. He said ETH's performance in the third quarter of 2026 could precede a stronger move in the fourth quarter of 2026. Lee said institutions had underweighted crypto in 2026 partly because AI stocks outperformed in early 2026. He said institutions could substantially increase their crypto exposure in the final three months of 2026, which he said could add to gains since June 30. As of Sept. 20, Bitmine held 212 BTC worth $18.1 million. It also held a $105 million stake in Eightco Holdings, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, and $714 million in cash and marketable securities. Bitmine's Ethereum holdings represented more than 4.9% of Ethereum's current circulating supply of approximately 122.1 million ETH, according to The Block's ether price page. The company was 98% of the way toward its Alchemy of 5% supply target within 15 months of starting its Ethereum treasury strategy. Bitmine said it had staked 5,067,309 ETH worth $13.8 billion. Lee said the company had staked more ETH than any other entity in the world. He said the projected annualized Ethereum staking reward could be $421 million when Bitmine's ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners. The firm projected annualized staking revenue of $357 million. Lee said the 5.1 million ETH staked represented 85% of Bitmine's 5.98 million ETH holdings. Bitmine's own staking operations generated a seven-day yield of 2.62% on an annualized basis. Bitmine remained the largest Ethereum treasury holder, followed by Joe Lubin's Sharplink with approximately 888,938 ETH and The Ether Machine with approximately 496,712 ETH, according to SER data. Bitmine was also the second-largest public crypto treasury company overall, behind Michael Saylor's Strategy. Strategy held 846,000 BTC worth $71.9 billion after its latest weekly acquisition, according to the report. That amount represented more than 4% of bitcoin's 21 million supply cap.