Bitmine Makes Largest Ethereum Purchase Of 2026 As Tom Lee Dismisses Market Selloff

Bitmine, the world’s largest Ethereum treasury, has ramped up its ETH buying during the latest crypto market correction, making the company’s largest purchase of 2026 to date.

On Monday, Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced it had bought over 126,971 ETH, worth roughly $214 million, during last week’s dip, marking the treasury’s largest purchase so far this year.

Now, Bitmine’s crypto and cash holdings sit at $9.6 billion at current prices, comprised of 5,543,872 ETH at $1,630 per ETH, 204 Bitcoin (BTC), a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, an $88 million stake in Eightco Holdings as part of its “Moonshots” initiative, and total cash worth $247 million.

In a statement, Bitmine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, explained that the firm saw the recent price dip, which sent Ethereum to a one-year low of $1,505 on Sunday, as a buying opportunity, arguing that Ethereum’s fundamentals are strengthening.

“We increased our buying as we believe this pullback in ETH prices does not reflect the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals. This is not surprising given we are in the early stages of crypto spring,” he said.

Lee argued that the broader crypto market sell-off was a “superficial take,” driven more by short‑term panic than by real weakness. He also affirmed that the recent Zcash Orchard incident strengthens Ethereum’s use case.

AI systems are going to find flaws in centralized financial services rails and weak decentralized protocols. We believe this actually strengthens the use case and product market fit for hardened and reliable decentralized blockchains like Ethereum.

Therefore, the treasury firm believes that “ETH prices should not be coming under pressure,” he added. After the latest purchase, the firm’s ETH holdings have reached 4.59% of the altcoin’s total supply. Lee expects the company to reach its 5% supply goal “sometime in 2026.”

Despite Bitmine’s continuous bet on Ethereum, the king of altcoins has struggled over the past week, retracing roughly 15% and losing the February lows for the first time in four months.

Market observer Ash Crypto noted that ETH is repeating a setup that was seen once before during the last bear market. “Back in June 2022, ETH broke through every support level and crashed to $880. Everyone gave up on it. That turned out to be the exact bottom of the whole bear market,” he wrote.

This time, Ethereum has retraced 68% from its 2025 peak and broken through every support level after losing the 200-week Moving Average (MA), which sits around $2,471. Now, the next key support to watch is at $1,500, which could determine whether ETH repeats its previous playbook.

If ETH holds $1,500, the market watcher believes that the setup could play out exactly like in 2022, which led to a 5x over the next 18 months. On the contrary, if Ethereum loses the $1,500 in the weekly timeframe, he suggested the price could fall all the way to the $1,000 area, where the next major support zone is located.

As of this writing, ETH is trading at $1,687, a 4.8% increase in the daily timeframe.