BitMine Immersion Acquires $173M in Ether as Tom Lee Suggests Reason Behind Crypto Weakness

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), an Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury firm, announced the acquisition of over 54,000 Ether last week, valued at approximately $173 million. This purchase brings the firm's total ETH holdings close to 3% of the outstanding supply, alongside increased cash reserves of $607 million. Concurrently, Fundstrat co-founder Thomas Lee suggested that the recent weakness in cryptocurrency prices stems from a sharp reduction in market liquidity. He theorized this liquidity crunch is caused by a distressed market maker scaling back operations after the October 10 crash, creating a crypto-specific "quantitative tightening" effect that could last several weeks. Despite the downturn, Lee believes the current crypto cycle has not peaked, potentially extending into 2026 or later, driven by trends like asset tokenization on the Ethereum blockchain.

(Source：CoinDesk)