Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee has defended the company’s Ethereum-heavy treasury strategy after critics accused it of creating future selling pressure on Ether amid steep unrealized losses.
The criticism surfaced on social media this week, where a post claimed Bitmine was sitting on more than $6.6 billion in unrealized losses and acting as “exit liquidity” for early Ethereum holders. Lee responded directly, arguing that temporary losses are inevitable when a public company is designed to track the full price cycle of a volatile asset like Ether.
These tweets miss the point of an ethereum treasury:
– BitMine is designed to track the price of $ETH
– outperform over the cycle (think up ETH)
– crypto is in a downturn, so naturally ETH is down$BMNR will see “unrealized” losses on our holdings of ETH during these times:
-… https://t.co/VpoNjAnJdC— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FSInsight.com (@fundstrat) February 3, 2026
Lee says paper losses are part of the cycle
According to Lee, Bitmine’s objective is not to shield investors from drawdowns but to closely mirror Ethereum’s performance over time and ultimately outperform through disciplined accumulation and staking.
He questioned why unrealized losses in a crypto treasury are treated differently from declines in index-tracking funds during market downturns, noting that both structures naturally reflect broader market weakness. Ether’s recent slide has amplified Bitmine’s mark-to-market losses due to the company’s concentrated exposure, but Lee framed this as expected behaviour rather than a structural flaw.
Bitmine has repeatedly described its ETH strategy as a long-term bet on Ethereum’s growing role in global finance, combining large-scale accumulation with staking infrastructure to generate yield while maintaining exposure.
ETH holdings grow as debate over crypto treasuries intensifies
In its latest disclosure, Bitmine said it held approximately 4.24 million ETH as of January 26, after adding more than 40,000 ETH in the previous week. At current prices, unrealized losses on those holdings exceed $6 billion.
The company also highlighted what it sees as improving tailwinds for crypto, pointing to progress on U.S. market structure legislation and rising institutional interest in tokenization. Lee has linked the recent sell-off to broader market stress, including the fallout from a massive liquidation event last October and shifting capital flows toward traditional safe-haven assets like metals.
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