‘Ethereum at discount’ says Tom Lee after BitMine’s $13B ETH haul

Key Takeaways

Why has BitMine doubled down on ETH? 

Lee views ETH as the decade’s top macro trade, driven by AI growth and rising institutional demand.

Will the ETH price rally higher? 

That was a possibility. But bulls could stall near $5K again if whale sell-off spikes. 

Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion (NYSE: BMNR) has increased its Ethereum [ETH] holdings to $13.2 billion.

In a statement on the 6th of October, the firm said it had 2.83 million ETH tokens and 192 Bitcoin [BTC] alongside $456 million in cash. 

Collectively, BitMine is now the second-largest corporate crypto treasury after Michael Saylor’s Strategy. 

Source: Strategic ETH reserve

According to Fundstrat CIO and BitMine chairman, Tom Lee, ETH remains the “biggest macro trade” of the decade that will be driven by AI and crypto. 

He added that the ETH price is still at a “discount” to the future, hence his firm will eye 5% of the total ETH supply (6 million ETH). 

“We remain confident that the two supercycle investing narratives remain AI and crypto…Since ETH’s price is a discount to the future, this bodes well for the token and is the reason BitMine’s primary treasury asset is ETH.”

In other words, BitMine was only halfway through with its ETH accumulation target (about 3.2 million ETH to go). 

‘Legendary’ accumulation and ETH supply crunch

Bitwise’s CEO Hunter Horsley hailed the aggressive ETH accumulation that has been achieved in less than six months as “legendary.”

That said, the overall ETH treasury holdings and ETFs reached 5.66 million ETH worth $26.45 billion in October, up by more than $4 billion since Q2.

Source: Strategic ETH reserve

Although U.S. Spot ETH ETF inflows have slowed slightly in Q4 compared to Q3, the collective demand from crypto treasuries and ETFs could boost ETH price recovery. 

Besides, the ETH supply crunch seems to be creeping in.

Since July, the ETH Exchange Reserve decreased from over 20 million ETH to 16.1 million as of press time. That’s about 4 million ETH moved off exchanges or a 20% drop in available supply. 

Source: CryptoQuant

This could dampen massive ETH corrections. In fact, with the activation of staking on the Grayscale ETH ETF, the demand from ETFs could rebound, especially if other issuers follow suit. 

Bulls eye $5K but whales take profits

Meanwhile, the altcoin has recovered 22% from September’s low of $3.8K and flipped bullish after defending the $4.5K as support. 

Source: ETH/USDT, TradingView

A retest of $4.8K and a potential jump to $5K could be feasible. However, the OBV was at a resistance, and some whales began booking profits (over $70 million) from the recovery.