Crypto bull market has begun, Tom Lee says as Bitmine nears 6M ETH

Bitmine chairman Tom Lee has said a crypto bull market is underway and could strengthen in the fourth quarter as the Ethereum treasury company added another 27,562 ETH worth roughly $75 million.

According to Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Lee believes the bull market began in late June, supported by capital rotating from artificial intelligence stocks into crypto, stronger fundamentals around tokenization and AI, and what he described as the end of the four year crypto cycle.

“We believe a crypto bull market is underway, having started in late June, driven by a multitude of factors including the rotation from AI back to crypto, strengthening crypto fundamentals centered around both tokenization and AI and lastly, the ending of the 4-year cycle,” Lee said.

His comments accompanied Bitmine’s latest weekly treasury update, which showed its Ethereum holdings had climbed to 5,983,940 ETH. The position was worth around $16.3 billion at current prices, while the company reported $17.1 billion in total crypto, cash, marketable securities and other investments.

Tom Lee expects crypto bull market to strengthen in Q4

Lee pointed to Ethereum’s performance during the third quarter as one reason for expecting further gains during the final three months of 2026.

According to the Bitmine chairman, ETH has outperformed other macro assets by 6,519 basis points quarter to date. He described that performance as a possible precursor to a stronger move during the fourth quarter.

“To us, this massive outperformance of ETH in 3Q26 is viewed as a prelude to a potentially stronger up move in the 4th quarter of 2026,” Lee said.

Institutional positioning could provide another source of demand, according to Lee. He said institutions remained underweight crypto during 2026, partly because AI stocks had performed strongly earlier in the year, but expects that allocation gap to narrow during the remainder of 2026.

“We expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final 3 months of 2026,” Lee said. “We believe this could add meaningful upside to the gains seen since June 30.”

Lee has maintained a bullish view on Ethereum through its recent recovery. In August, Ethereum gained 29% over seven days as Lee argued that a rotation toward ETH had begun, with the token outperforming Bitcoin during the same period.

US spot Ethereum exchange traded funds attracted $365 million during July compared with $205 million for Bitcoin funds, providing another measure of institutional demand during that period.

A month later, crypto.news previously reported that Lee identified the approaching CLARITY Act vote, renewed Korean crypto demand and the four year market cycle as potential market catalysts heading into the final months of the year.

Lee said at the time that the four year cycle was “bottoming within the next few weeks,” while tokenization and agentic AI could support institutional demand for crypto.

Bitmine adds another 27,562 ETH

Against that market view, Bitmine continued its Ethereum accumulation during the past week, purchasing another 27,562 ETH since its Sept. 14 update.

The company did not disclose an average purchase price for the acquisition. At current prices, the tokens are worth close to $75 million.

Bitmine held 5,956,378 ETH a week earlier after acquiring 27,180 tokens, meaning its latest purchase pushed the treasury to within roughly 16,000 ETH of the 6 million mark.

The company has continued buying Ethereum every week since beginning its ETH treasury strategy in June 2025. Its holdings stood at 5,901,112 ETH at the end of August after a 53,501 ETH purchase, leaving the treasury up by more than 82,000 ETH over the following three weeks.

Bitmine’s current holdings represent more than 4.9% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of approximately 122.1 million ETH. The company said it has now completed 98% of its “Alchemy of 5%” target, under which it plans to control 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply.

Lee has previously linked Ethereum’s investment case to the expansion of tokenized financial assets and AI applications. In August, he expected Ethereum to outperform Bitcoin during the current cycle, while Fundstrat data cited by Bitmine showed an 80% correlation between the company’s shares and ETH.

More than 5 million ETH is now staked

Bitmine’s accumulation has been accompanied by a large increase in the amount of Ethereum committed to staking.

As of Sept. 20, the company had 5,067,309 ETH staked, worth roughly $13.8 billion and representing around 85% of its total Ethereum holdings.

“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,” Lee said.

Based on the company’s seven day annualized staking yield of 2.62%, Bitmine projects its current position could generate approximately $357 million in annual staking revenue.

If its entire Ethereum treasury is eventually staked through its Made in America Validator Network, known as MAVAN, and other staking partners, Lee said annual rewards could reach $421 million.

Staking has become a significant source of revenue for the company as its treasury has expanded. During the three months ended May 31, Ethereum staking generated $45.7 million of Bitmine’s $46.5 million in quarterly revenue.

Bitmine remains the largest Ethereum treasury holder

Bitmine remains the largest public Ethereum treasury company, followed by SharpLink and The Ether Machine, which hold approximately 888,938 ETH and 496,712 ETH, respectively, according to Strategic ETH Reserve data cited in the update.

Its nearly 5.98 million ETH treasury makes Bitmine the second largest public crypto treasury company by the value of its principal digital asset holdings.

Strategy remains the largest after its latest weekly purchase increased its Bitcoin holdings to 846,000 BTC, worth approximately $71.9 billion at current prices. The position represents more than 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply cap.