“Ether’s plunging price stands in stark contrast to surging blockchain activity, marking a contrast to previous bear markets, company Chairman Tom Lee said.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
The firm said in a Monday update that it bought 41,788 ETH last week, its largest weekly token haul so far this year, worth around $96 million at current prices. The purchase lifted BitMine’s total ETH holdings to 4,285,125 tokens, or about 3.55% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, according to a company update released Monday. The firm also holds 193 bitcoins BTC$77,528.46$586 million in cash, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries and a $20 million stake in Eightco Holdings.
Ether fell to around $2,300 over the weekend, pulling the firm’s total crypto, cash and equity holdings down to $10.7 billion. In Monday morning US trade, the price had recovered modestly to $2,360. BMNR shares were lower by 5%>
With crypto prices falling sharply last week, the firm is estimated to be sitting on roughly $6 billion in unrealized losses on its position.
Chairman Thomas Lee said ether’s price weakness contrasts with rising activity on the Ethereum blockchain, noting that daily transactions and active addresses recently hit record highs.
“During the crypto winter of 2021-2022 or 2018-2019, Ethereum transaction activity and active wallets declined, which is counter to what we have seen in the past 12 months,” Lee said.
He argued that lingering effects from October’s crypto crash and the recent surge in precious metals prices have weighed on the market, sucking out liquidity from the crypto economy.
BitMine has also ramped up staking, raising its total staked ETH to nearly 2.9 million tokens, or about two-thirds of its holdings, generating an estimated $188 million in annualized staking revenue.