Bitmine (NYSE:BMNR) purchased 65,341 Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) for roughly $138 million last week, accelerating buying for the third consecutive week as Chairman Tom Lee bets ETH is in the final stages of a “mini-crypto winter.”

The Accelerating Pace

Bitmine now holds 4.66 million ETH worth approximately $9.7 billion at $2,072 per token, representing 3.86% of ETH’s circulating supply. 

The company increased its weekly purchase pace from an average of 45,000-50,000 tokens to 65,341 last week.

“Our base case is ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter,'” Lee said, noting that ETH has outperformed equities by 2,450 basis points since the Iran war began, rising 18% while gold fell more than 15%.

Cash reserves stand at $1.1 billion, with total crypto and cash holdings reaching $11 billion including 196 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and $95 million in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ:ORBS). 

The ORBS investment gives Bitmine one of the only publicly listed exposures to OpenAI.

The Staking Revenue Machine

Bitmine has staked 3.14 million ETH worth $6.5 billion, generating $184 million in annualized staking revenue. 

At full scale with the MAVAN staking solution launching Q1 2026, annual staking rewards could hit $272 million using a 2.83% yield.

“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,” Lee said. The company’s 7-day staking yield of 2.83% beats the 2.75% Composite Ethereum Staking Rate administered by Quatrefoil.

Bitmine remains the largest ETH treasury in the world and the second-largest crypto treasury globally behind Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), which holds 762,099 Bitcoin valued at $57.69 billion.

The CLARITY Act Catalyst

Lee cited prediction markets showing a 68% chance the CLARITY Act gets signed into law in 2026 as a positive fundamental catalyst for Ethereum. The act is expected to pass before the end of April.

“This is another reason probabilities favor the crypto winter as being largely behind us,” Lee said.

BMNR Tests $23.92 Resistance

Bitmine remains down roughly 70% from its October peak of $65. 

The Supertrend at $23.92 is the immediate ceiling—price has traded below it since November without a single meaningful reclaim.

The Parabolic SAR at $20.14 recently flipped bullish, sitting below price for the first time in months. 

Prior SAR flips in August-September corresponded with BMNR’s strongest sustained rallies, but the September rally also had a clean Supertrend flip to accompany it.

The $19-$20 horizontal support zone has held repeatedly since February, forming what looks like a potential base. 

Six weeks of price compression in this zone is constructive. A high-volume break above $23.92 would technically confirm the base and target the next resistance cluster near $29-$30.

Image: Shutterstock