Tom Lee’s BitMine Adds $103.6M ETH As Fundstrat Predicts Surge To $5.5K

Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies has added to its Ethereum stockpile with another $103.68 million purchase as Fundstrat says the altcoin is poised to surge to $5.5k.

BitMine received the 23,823 ETH from BitGo earlier today via the wallet address “”0xF8c … 338E7,” according to an X post by on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain.

The purchase brings BitMine’s total ETH treasury to 2,853,974 tokens worth about $12.35 billion, consolidating its position as the largest corporate ETH holder globally. The firm also holds 192 BTC, $113 million in Nasdaq-listed Eightco shares, and $456 million in cash.

Fundstrat Says ETH Could Soar To $5.5K As Pullback End Nears

Research firm Fundstrat, of which BitMine’s Lee is also CIO, says ETH will likely “bottom out” over the next two days and then soar more than 26% to $5.5k.

“I do not make much of crypto weakness in recent days, and expect ETH likely bottoms out over the next 1-2 days before heading back higher,” said Fundstrat’s Managing Director Mark Newton. 

The ETH price has dropped over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

ETH price (Source: CoinMarketCap)

After reaching a new all-time high (ATH) of $4,953.73 on Aug. 24, the altcoin leader’s price has retraced more than 12% to trade at $4,349.22 as of 1:35 a.m. EST. 

Short-Seller Says BitMine’s Strategy Of Selling Equity To Buy ETH Is A ”Relic”

The recent ETH transaction comes just a day after the short-seller Kerrisdale Capital targeted BitMine in its latest report, saying its ETH treasury strategy is “chasing a model that is on its way to extinction.” 

Kerrisdale argued that BitMine’s strategy of selling shares at a premium to purchase ETH and grow its token-per-share metric is no longer effective, highlighting that the company’s value compared to its crypto holdings is narrowing.

“The sheer velocity of BMNR’s stock issuance has turned early enthusiasm into fatigue, with investors conditioned to believe every rally will be met by more supply,” it said. “While the company still reports headline growth in total ETH tokens, the pace of ETH-per-share accretion has slowed as the NAV premium narrows and the share count balloons – a trend made harder to follow after BMNR quietly dropped up-to-date share counts from its weekly press releases.”

Kerrisdale also revealed that it has opened a short position on BitMine’s stock, which is a bet that the company’s share price will fall. 

This is not the first time Kerissdale has predicted stock drops for crypto-related companies. It has also targeted Riot Platforms and Strategy, which are two of the largest Bitcoin treasury companies globally. 

Riot dismissed Kerrisdale’s findings as “unsound,” while Strategy ignored the report. 

BitMine share price (Source: Google Finance)

BitMine’s share price dropped over 1% after the short seller released its report, but it’s still up more than 3% in the past week, and has exploded by 14,650% in six months, according to Google Finance.