Bitmine Immersion Technologies has pushed its Ether buying streak into a fifth consecutive week, acquiring 71,179 ETH — roughly $147 million — its largest single-week purchase of 2026 so far. The addition raised Bitmine’s weekly average buy from about $93 million to $103 million. Across the prior four buys the firm acquired 238,244 ETH in total.
Bitmine executive Lee said the company has sustained the accelerated purchase pace because its base case sees ETH in the final stage of a ‘mini-crypto winter.’ Crypto markets have remained volatile since the October crash, and institutional momentum appears to be cooling, with inflows into exchange-traded products slowing amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East. Lee noted that reduced oil-market risk could help markets recover, pointing out that the inverse correlation between crypto and equities and oil is at its highest level in the past year. In his view, until equity markets are comfortable with oil’s future trajectory, rising oil is a headwind for equities and crypto, and the crypto winter is likely to end only after the upside risk to oil prices peaks.
Bitmine stands out among large Ether treasury holders for publicly disclosing purchases this year. Data from StrategicEthReserve, which tracks 67 large Ether treasuries, shows Bitmine leading by a wide margin. Peers include SharpLink Gaming with roughly 863,000 ETH and Ether Machine with about 496,000 ETH. Of the top three, Bitmine is the only one to report fresh buys in 2026; SharpLink’s last reported purchase was 3,600 ETH in December and Ether Machine last bought 1,400 ETH in October.
A similar concentration is visible in Bitcoin treasuries. CryptoQuant analysts say MicroStrategy (referred to as Strategy) accounted for most BTC treasury demand over the past 30 days, buying about 45,000 BTC while non-Strategy firms bought roughly 1,000 BTC — a roughly 99% drop from peak levels. Strategy’s reported holdings are about 762,099 BTC, valued at more than $51 billion. The company recently paused its regular buys, reporting no purchases to the U.S. SEC between March 23 and March 29.
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