Crypto Market Bottom or More Pain?

• BitMine has accumulated 10,000 Ethereum potentially signaling strong market interest.
• Evidence points to long-term institutional conviction in the Ethereum and web3 industry amid crypto legalization in the U.S.
• Wall Street Investors are betting on Ethereum to follow Silver soon due to the AI growth.

BitMine Immersion Technologies has reiterated its long-term conviction for Ethereum (ETH). Amid the ongoing crypto liquidity outflow catalyzed by extreme fear of more crypto capitulation, on-chain data analysis shows BitMine accumulated 10,000 ETH, valued at around $19.49 million, this week.

Meanwhile, the ETH price has struggled to trade above $2k in the past few days hovering about $1,959 on Friday, February 20, 2026. Worth noting that CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed Index hovered around 12/100, which is extreme fear from crypto traders.

Bitmine Unshaken By Unrealized ETH Losses 

BitMine’s behavior is not reactive, it is systematic. Throughout February 2026, reports show the company added tens of thousands of ETH per week. For instance, BitMine recently purchased 45,759 ETH valued at about $90 million, thus lifting its total holdings to about 4.37M ETH.

Remarkably, BitMine has already staked 3M ETH, thus earning passively through rewards. As such, BitMine has managed to service its obligations including interests.

Despite sitting on sizable unrealized losses, amounting to more than $6 billion, BitMine continues to level up its ETH accumulation. 

Is It a Buy Signal?

The entrance of Wall Street analysts into the crypto market has provided investors with refined information, especially political. Ahead of the expected passage of the Clarity Act in the U.S. Senate, catalyzed by President Donald Trump’s support, institutional investors have been betting on Ethereum to succeed in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA).

As such, the strong conviction behind BitMine on ETH is a major indicator that a bull market is ahead amid ongoing bearish sentiment. Furthermore, past accumulations have happened during the bear market and profit-taking during bull markets.

“Is this the bottom? Seems like we are closing in on that low. Looking beyond the near-term, the risk/reward for $ETH is positive,” BitMine on X stated.

Furthermore, this researcher believes that the ETH price has reached its bottom or is approaching its bear case based on the ETH Price and Realized Price (Log Scale) indicator.

Source: X

Why Now?

The institutional demand for ETH has been directly driven by the parabolic demand for Silver as an industrial metal for catalyzing the growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Ethereum has also received significant global legalization as a digital asset, due to its decentralization and deep liquidity.

Ahead of the imminent passage of the Clarity Act, institutional investors have been positioning their portfolios to benefit from the anticipated altseason, potentially to begin before the end of 2026.

Related: Ethereum Price Prediction: Can ETH Hold $1,900 As Analyst Warns Of 22% Drop?