The historic crypto market crash in October forced a reckoning on leveraged trading, sent prices tumbling and paved the way for bold institutional buying on the dip. Among the biggest players was Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies. Giant treasury firm Ethereum quickly expanded its already massive ETH coffers by acquiring an additional 128,718 ETH (worth approximately $480 million) immediately following the sharp sell-off.
Bitmine buys the dip
According to real-time data shared by on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, Bitmine moved quickly following the plunge. He withdrew over 128,000 ETH from major exchanges FalconX and Kraken using six newly activated wallets, likely linked to Bitmine.
These transfers were corroborated by blockchain explorers and were part of a pattern of large withdrawals and positions by the whales’ institutional accounts through the crash window.
Bitmine is led by Tom Lee, CIO of Fundstrat Capital, and had already accumulated over 2.83 million ETH. With the latest transport, their holdings jumped to around 2.96 million ETH, or almost 2.5% of Ethereum’s total supply; by far the largest ETH hoard of any public company, second only to MicroStrategy in crypto as a whole.
The market context
The buying spree came just after President Trump’s surprise announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese software imports, alongside strict controls on US exports of rare earth minerals.
The announcement triggered a cascade: Bitcoin fell 13%, Ethereum collapsed 20%, and the entire derivatives market wiped out more than $20 billion in open interest in a matter of hours. Altcoins suffered sharp declines, making deep liquidity pockets and confident buyers rare, with the exception of Bitmine, which reloaded during the chaos.
Transaction logs show Bitmine purchases clustered around the crash, with ETH being purchased at levels as low as $3,728. The acquisition coincided with active positions by institutional whales and some OTC players, with Lookonchain reporting additional multi-million dollar accumulations at market lows.
There has also been a flurry of speculation online that BlackRock may have timed the stock market crash and grabbed 45,000 BTC. However, these claims are not supported by public data.
Market Impact and Future Outlook
Bitmine’s continued accumulation despite posting floating unrealized losses of over $2 billion due to falling prices shows institutional conviction in both Ethereum’s long-term value and the network’s fundamentals. As KOL and investor Ted Pillows commented:
“Institutions are not afraid to buy Ethereum.”
Their cash flow strategy is designed to scale. Bitmine remains engaged in aggressive bear-buying maneuvers in times of heightened volatility. Recent purchases also make staking easier, with Bitmine using validator nodes and liquidity protocols to gain annual returns on top of price exposure.
As leveraged sellers have been eliminated, Bitmine and similar buyers have repositioned themselves for long-term gains, potentially supporting price stability as volatility returns after the crash.
