Tom Lee’s BitMine Buys Another $201M In Ethereum As Whales Double Down On ETH

Tom Lee’s BitMine, which is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum (ETH) globally, has bought another $201 million worth of the altcoin as whales double down on the crypto as well.

That’s as the price of ETH dropped over 1% in the last 24 hours to trade at $2,945.17 as of 12:40 a.m. EST, according to CoinMarketCap data. This was a minor deviation from the bullish trend the altcoin leader has been in over the past month. As such, ETH is still more than 4% in the green on the 30-day time frame after the recent retracement. 

BitMine And Other Large Buyers Double Down On ETH

According to a Dec. 24 X post from the on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, BitMine has purchased another 67,886 ETH worth $201 million in the past 24 hours. 

The firm shared a snapshot of on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence, which shows that BitMine bought the ETH from FalconX, BitGo, and Kraken.

BitMine currently holds 4.07 million ETH on its balance sheet, data from StrategicETHReserve shows. At current prices, the stockpile is valued at around $11.97 billion.

At the start of the week, BitMine had announced that it had bought 3,967,210 ETH for more than $11,68 million last week.

The continued purchases are part of the company’s goal to hold 5% of ETH’s total supply. Following the confirmed purchases on Monday, BitMine now holds 3.36% of the altcoin king’s supply.

As BitMine continues its accumulation, Lookonchain also noted that a whale, who had previously bought 528,272 ETH for $1.57 billion, has executed another large buy. In an earlier X post today, the on-chain analytics firm said that the whale bought 40,975 tokens valued at $121 million in the past 24 hours.

Since Nov. 4, that whale has purchased a total of 569,247 ETH for $1.69 billion, Lookonchain added. 

Institutional asset manager Fasanara Capital joined the trend as well, and bought 6,569 ETH for $19.72 million in the past couple of days, Lookonchain noted. The firm then borrowed 13 million USDC to buy even more tokens. 

ETH Price Faces Strong Technical Resistance

The recent ETH buys come as the altcoin continues to trade in a consolidation channel between $2,690 and $3,060.

Daily chart for WETH/USD (Source: GeckoTerminal)

Technical indicators such as the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), the Relative Strength Index (RSI), and short-term Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) suggest that ETH has strong resistance to overcome before it can rally. 

The 9 and 20 EMA, which coincide with the $3,060 resistance level, are currently pushing the ETH price down. 

Meanwhile, the RSI reading below the neutral 50 mark, at around 44, suggests that sellers have a slight upper hand over buyers from a strength perspective. Additionally, the RSI is sloped negatively, which could be an early warning that bears are growing stronger. 

Bulls do, however, have a slight upper hand in terms of momentum, as seen with the MACD’s current alignment above the MACD Signal line. 

Before bulls can gain steam, ETH will need to overcome the resistance at $3,060. A break above this level might lead to a rally to the next major barrier at $3,601. Conversely, a rejection from the $3,060 resistance or sellers deciding to step in at current levels could either lead to a plunge to $2,690 or an extended period of sideways trading.