Tom Lee’s BitMine Buys 5,000 Ether From Ethereum Foundation In Second-Such OTC Deal ⋆ ZyCrypto

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The Ethereum Foundation has sold a portion of its treasury to Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies, marking the second instance of a publicly traded firm acquiring ETH directly from the protocol’s core steward.

In a post on X, the Ethereum Foundation said it sold 5,000 Ethereum to BitMine Immersion Technologies at an average price of $2,042.96 per token, totaling just over $10.2 million.

The on-chain transaction was executed through an EF Safe multisig wallet controlled by the Ethereum Foundation.

“This sale funds the [Ethereum Foundation’s] core operations & activities, including protocol R&D, ecosystem development, community grant funding and more,” the EF wrote, adding that it was part of its “ongoing treasury management activities.”

BitMine, chaired by Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors, is the world’s largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm, holding more than 4.5 million ETH valued at a staggering $9.3 billion. The firm has been rapidly accumulating Ethereum since mid-2025, following a strategy inspired by Strategy’s well-known Bitcoin accumulation playbook.

Ethereum Foundation Offloads More ETH In Second Private OTC Transaction

This marks the second time the Ethereum Foundation has sold a portion of its holdings to an Ethereum treasury company. Last July, it sold 10,000 Ethereum — worth roughly $26 million at the time— to iGaming giant Sharplink, which now ranks as the second-largest ETH treasury with about $1.75 billion in the asset. Notably, using an OTC approach allows the sale to bypass public exchange sell pressure.

The Saturday announcement follows the foundation’s recent move to stake part of its treasury, planning to allocate roughly 70,000 Ethereum to validators via open-source infrastructure from Bitwise Onchain Solutions.

Meanwhile, Ethereum has seen a steep decline in recent months, along with most major cryptocurrencies, dropping 57.1% from its $4,946 peak in August 2025, CoinGecko data shows. As a result, BitMine and other Ethereum treasury firms that began accumulating ETH near last year’s highs are facing significant paper losses. Based on SEC filings and estimated purchases since November, BitMine’s unrealized losses are roughly $7.5 billion.