Bitmine chairman Tom Lee has said a crypto bull market is underway and could reinforce in the fourth quarter as the Ethereum treasury company added another 27,562 ETH worth around $75 million.
As per the Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Lee believes the bull market started in late June, supported through capital rotating from artificial intelligence stocks into crypto, stronger fundamentals around tokenization and AI, and what he explained as the end of the 4 year crypto cycle.
“We believe a crypto bull market is underway, having commenced in late June, driven by a multitude of factors which include the rotation from AI back to crypto, reinforcing crypto fundamentals centered around both tokenization and AI and finally, the ending of the 4-year cycle,” Lee mentioned.
His comments followed Bitmine’s latest weekly treasury update, which showed its Ethereum holdings had reached 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 bolster in Q4
Lee pointed to Ethereum’s performance throughout the third quarter as one reason for anticipating for similarly gains in the course of the final 3-months of 2026.
As per the Bitmine chairman, ETH has surpassed other macro assets through 6,519 basis points quarter to date. He defined that performance as a possible precursor to a stronger move during the fourth quarter.
“To us, this large surpass 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 ought to offer another source of demand, as per Lee. He mentioned institutions stayed underweight crypto during 2026, partly as AI stocks had performed strongly earlier in the year, however anticipates that allocation gap to narrow at some point remainder of 2026.
“We anticipate institutions to substantially boom their exposure in the final 3 months of 2026,” Lee mentioned. “We believe this could add significant upside to the gains seen since June 30.”
Lee has maintained a bullish view on Ethereum through its latest recovery. In August, Ethereum gained 29% over 7-days as Lee claimed that a rotation toward ETH had started, with the token surpassing Bitcoin during same period.
US spot Ethereum exchange traded funds attracted $365 million during July as compared with $205 million for Bitcoin funds, presenting some other measure of institutional demand during that period.
A month later, crypto.news previously mentioned that Lee identified the upcoming CLARITY Act vote, renewed Korean crypto demand and the 4-year market cycle as potential market catalysts heading into the final months of the year.
Lee mention at the time that the 4 year cycle was “bottoming within the next few weeks,” at the same time as tokenization and agentic AI could support institutional demand for crypto.
Bitmine adds another 27,562 ETH
Against that market view, Bitmine persisted its Ethereum accumulation during the past week, buying another 27,562 ETH since its Sept. 14 update.
The company did no reveal an average purchase price for the acquisition. At current prices, the tokens are worth around $75 million.
Bitmine held 5,956,378 ETH a week earlier after obtaining 27,180 tokens, that means its latest purchase pushed the treasury to within around of 16,000 ETH of the 6 million mark.
The company has persisted buying Ethereum every week since starting 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 3-weeks.
Bitmine’s current holdings represent more than 4.9% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of about 122.1 million ETH. The company said it has now completed 98% of its “Alchemy of 5%” target, below which it plans to control 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply.
Lee has formerly connected Ethereum’s investment case to the tokenized financial assets and AI applications. In August, he anticipated Ethereum to surpass Bitcoin during the current cycle, even as Fundstrat data stated by 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 large increase in the amount of Ethereum committed to staking.
As of Sept. 20, the company had 5,067,309 ETH staked, worth around $13.8 billion and representing around 85% of its total Ethereum holdings.
“Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,” Lee stated.
Based on the company’s 7-day annualized staking yield of 2.62%, Bitmine venture its current position ought to generate about $357 million in annual staking revenue.
If its whole Ethereum treasury is eventually staked through its Made in America Validator Network, called MAVAN, and other staking partners, Lee said annual rewards could attain $421 million.
Staking has become a considerable source of revenue for the company as its treasury has increased. During the 3-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 stays the largest public Ethereum treasury company, followed by SharpLink and The Ether Machine, which hold about 888,938 ETH and 496,712 ETH, respectively, as per the Strategic ETH Reserve data stated 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 stays the largest after its latest weekly purchase increased its Bitcoin holdings to 846,000 BTC, worth about $71.9 billion at current prices. The position represents more than 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply cap.
