Bitmine invests another $238 million to buy Ethereum! Why is Tom Lee loudly proclaiming that the "Crypto Spring" has arrived?

Bitmine invested $238 million to add to its Ethereum holdings last week, bringing its total holdings to more than 5.18 million coins. Tom Lee said that crypto spring has arrived, with tokenization and AI demand set to drive application growth, and he is optimistic that regulatory bills will pass.

Bitmine (BMNR), the world’s largest corporate Ethereum holder, bought an additional 101,745 Ethereum coins last week. Its chairman, Tom Lee, said that even if market sentiment remains sluggish, a new round of “crypto spring” has quietly begun.

According to a statement released on Monday, Bitmine’s total Ethereum holdings have surpassed 5.18 million coins, accounting for approximately 4.29% of the total Ethereum supply.

At present, the total value of Bitmine’s cryptocurrencies and cash assets has reached $13.1 billion. In addition to holding a large amount of Ethereum, the company also holds 200 Bitcoin, $700 million in cash and equity, including stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.

Based on current market prices, the value of Bitmine’s latest Ethereum purchase is about $238 million, continuing the company’s weekly pattern of large-scale buying.

Bitmine’s bold move to heavily increase its position at this moment comes from its assessment of market trends. Tom Lee believes the cryptocurrency market is gradually coming out of the “mini-winter” of the past few months. He said that market conditions are improving, and the U.S. digital asset regulatory bill, the “CLARITY Act,” is also showing positive progress.

In his statement, he explained: “The U.S. Senate has recently released a compromise version of the CLARITY Act. While the new version prohibits paying interest or yields on held assets, it allows providers to offer rewards based on ‘actual transactions or activities,’ in order to balance and protect the interests of existing depository institutions (that is, traditional banks).”

For us, this compromise is basically acceptable, and we are also very much looking forward to the bill passing smoothly in 2026.

He also mentioned that on the decentralized prediction market Polymarket, traders have put the odds of the CLARITY Act passing this year at above 60%.

Tom Lee emphasized: “In our view, the crypto spring has already kicked off. Like in past cycles, even if cryptocurrency prices rise, investor sentiment and confidence remain subdued and biased to the downside.”

Tom Lee pointed out that Ethereum is benefiting from two major long-term trends: first, the “tokenization” wave that moves financial assets on-chain; second, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. He expects that future AI systems will seek neutral and open blockchain networks to carry out payments and identity verification, which will greatly increase the practical demand for the Ethereum network.

In addition, Tom Lee also noted that since the outbreak of the Iran conflict, Ethereum’s performance has outpaced traditional stock markets, showing that Ethereum is increasingly being viewed as an asset with both the properties of a “store of value” and a “medium of exchange.”

Bitmine is also continuing to expand its staking business. It has already staked more than 84%, totaling 4.36 million Ethereum, with an estimated annualized return of about $297 million.

• This article is reprinted with permission from: “Block Guest”
• Original title: “Bitmine Spends Another $238 Million to Buy Ethereum! Tom Lee Hails: ‘Crypto Spring’ Is Here”
• Original author: Block Sister MEL