Bitmine Chair Tom Lee Shrugs Off ETH Treasury Losses, Asks If ETFs Should Face Same Scrutiny

Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee pushed back on criticism of the company’s Ethereum treasury strategy on Tuesday, arguing that paper losses come with the territory when a public vehicle is built to mirror the price of Ethereum through a full market cycle.

Lee’s comments were made in response to a social media post that accused Bitmine of sitting on a steep unrealized loss and setting up future selling pressure for Ether.

“BMNR is now sitting on a -$6.6 Billion dollar unrealized LOSS on the ETH they’ve accumulated. This is ETH in the future that will be sold, putting a future ceiling on ETH prices. Tom Lee was the final exit liquidity for OG ETH whales to get out of their worthless token,” the tweet read.

Lee Defends ETH Treasury As Long-Term Tracking Strategy

In response, Lee said the company’s goal is to track Ether’s price closely and aim to outperform over time through its approach, rather than trying to smooth out drawdowns.

He said unrealized losses show up naturally during broad crypto pullbacks, and he questioned why critics treat that as uniquely problematic when index products also swing lower during market declines.

Ether has slid sharply in the latest leg of the downturn, and Bitmine’s growing treasury has amplified the mark-to-market moves that come with a concentrated position.

Bitmine itself has framed the strategy as a long-duration bet on Ethereum’s role in finance and capital markets, pairing accumulation with staking infrastructure.

Bitmine’s ETH Holdings Climb To 4.24M As Paper Losses Pass $6B

In a recent company release, Bitmine said it held 4.24M ETH as of Jan. 25 and said it acquired 40,302 ETH over the prior week. Meanwhile, unrealized losses topped $6B.

The same statement pointed to a shifting political and institutional backdrop. It quoted President Donald Trump saying that Congress is working on crypto market structure legislation that he hopes to sign soon, and it positioned tokenization as a theme gaining traction among large financial players.

Lee has also tied the sell-off to market structure stress, pointing to the aftershocks of a record $19B liquidation event in October and to the way flows into metals can drain risk appetite from crypto during fragile periods.

The episode has reopened a wider debate around corporate-style crypto treasuries, especially those using Ether rather than Bitcoin.

Lee appears to be treating the recent drawdown as part of the cycle, not proof that the strategy is broken, and he has kept his longer-term pitch intact that Ethereum sits at the centre of where finance is heading.