Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR, the foremost corporate holder of Ethereum treasury assets, acquired an additional 27,562 ether ETH over the previous week, sustaining its consistent acquisition pattern while Chairman Tom Lee contended that large institutional players still possess low digital asset allocations.
Valued at approximately $75.2 million based on Monday’s ether valuation of $2,727, this acquisition brought Bitmine’s total reserves to 5,983,940 ETH. That equates to roughly 4.9% of the cryptocurrency’s total 122.1 million circulating supply, keeping the organization within close range of its 5% target.
The corporation has maintained a comparable buying tempo across recent weeks, indicating that at this velocity, it might achieve its ultimate accumulation milestone over the next couple of months. Management confirmed acquiring ether on a weekly basis starting from June 2025, the timeframe when the entity shifted toward a dedicated crypto treasury model.
Bitmine has currently staked close to 5 million ETH, representing approximately 85% of its total reserves, and estimated annual staking income of roughly $357 million given prevailing yield rates.
Bitmine equities traded 5.8% higher during pre-market hours, building upon a preceding Friday 8% upward move as ETH rallied overnight to reach a new price peak not seen since the closing days of January.
Tom Lee Anticipates Year-End Crypto Catch-Up
In parallel, Tom Lee stated that institutional market participants could presently be playing catch-up after heavily favoring equities tied to artificial intelligence earlier in the year.
Ever since the conclusion of June, ETH has climbed by 76%, vastly outpacing the S&P 500 index’s modest 2% advancement. Lee emphasized that such a performance divergence might capture heightened interest from portfolio managers who maintained minimal crypto exposure throughout the year.
“Given institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final three months of 2026,” Lee remarked.
Furthermore, he highlighted asset tokenization alongside the expanding integration of blockchain within artificial intelligence as broader, long-term drivers that could encourage institutions to enlarge their holdings.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/21/bitmine-bought-usd75-million-ether-as-tom-lee-says-institutions-are-still-underweight-crypto.
