Bitmine buys another $49M in ETH as Tom Lee warns of strained market maker liquidity

Bitmine continues its Ethereum buying spree while chairman Tom Lee warns that crypto markets are still struggling with weak market maker liquidity.

Bitmine has purchased another 17,242 ETH, worth about $49 million, according to data shared by analytics firm Onchain Lens on Nov. 21.

The company now holds around 3.5 million Ethereum (ETH) valued at over $10 billion. Its steady buying has continued even as the crypto market experiences significant pressure.

Bitmine continues its aggressive ETH accumulation

Bitmine was originally a mining firm but has shifted into a digital asset treasury business. It plans to build a long-term Ethereum reserve and eventually hold approximately 5% of the asset’s circulating supply.

The company funds these purchases through equity raises, cash reserves, and staking rewards. Most buys are executed through large over-the-counter desks such as FalconX and BitGo.

The company has treated the recent price dips as buying opportunities. ETH has fallen sharply from early October highs above $4000 to levels below $3000 in mid-November. Despite this slump, Bitmine has continued to accumulate at scale and is now second only to Strategy in total crypto holdings.

Tom Lee says market makers are still repairing balance sheets

In a Nov. 20 interview with CNBC, Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine and co-founder of Fundstrat, noted that the recent weakness across crypto is tied to strained liquidity among major market makers. He said the firms were hit hard by the Oct. 10 crash that wiped out roughly $20 billion in forced liquidations.

Lee said market makers are cutting activity because they “have a hole in their balance sheet” and need to free up capital. He added that some firms have been “shrinking their balance sheet further” to recover from last month’s selloff.

According to Lee, this has caused a slow and steady drag on prices as these firms unwind risk. He said the current period mirrors a similar event from 2022 that took about eight weeks to stabilise.

The market is now six weeks into the process and Lee believes it “may take a couple more weeks” before the pressure begins to fade. He noted that Bitcoin and Ethereum have been acting as early indicators of this liquidity squeeze and expects conditions to improve once market makers resume normal operations.

Bitmine has remained committed to its long-term Ethereum strategy. The company views the asset as a core part of decentralized finance, smart contracts, and tokenization. Its steady buying suggests strong conviction even as the market waits for liquidity to normalize.