Key Takeaways
- Tom Lee said at Token2049 on Oct. 7 that this “may be the biggest bull market we’ve ever seen.”
- Bitmine bought 12,500 ETH worth $33.65M via Bitgo, lifting it to about 4.9% of ether’s supply.
- With a hard 5% cap, Bitmine has roughly 76,000 ETH, or about $200M, of buying left.
What Did Lee Say?
Lee, chairman of ether treasury company Bitmine and head of research at Fundstrat, used his Token2049 Singapore appearance to go all-in on the bull case, noting:
[Crypto is] 2 days past the bottom. This may be the biggest bull market we’ve ever seen.
His reasoning leaned on who is doing the buying, stating that he has “never seen” quite so many major institutions declare a bull market during any of the previous cycles he has witnessed, and that their doing so now confirms the cycle.
Lee dated the start of this bull market to August 2026, said the four-year-cycle bottom has already appeared, and pointed to four drivers, namely:
- Institutional asset tokenization.
- A decade-long intergenerational wealth transfer.
- Digital asset treasury companies soaking up supply.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) agents paying onchain.
The Market’s Response
As Token2049 Singapore continues to run through Oct. 7-8 at Marina Bay Sands, bitcoin’s morning saw the asset fall from about $86,590 to $83,790 in roughly 20 minutes. Onchain trackers subsequently tallied $412.62 million in liquidations in just an hour, almost all of it longs.
Ether, the asset Lee’s company is built around, took a bigger hit than bitcoin. It slid from roughly $2,720 to a low of $2,610, and Lookonchain caught one trader losing a $9.85 million ETH long in about three minutes.
The day before was not much better for ether demand. U.S. spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $201.89 million in outflows on Oct. 6, while bitcoin ETFs took in $118.8 million.
None of that disproves Lee’s thesis, though, which was centered around a multi-month timeframe rather than minutes. But, in any case, his “2 days past the bottom” line will be judged against the lows that printed the same morning.
Why Is Bitmine Hitting the Brakes?
Another consequential remark of his Token2049 appearance may have been about Bitmine itself. Lee said the company is not accumulating past 5% of ether’s supply, a goal he has previously referred to to as the “alchemy of 5%.”
Bitmine is already close and on Oct. 5 the firm’s holdings update showed 6.016 million ETH and $17.4 billion in total crypto and cash, after Bitcoin.com News reported the company neared the 5% mark with a $41 million purchase.
How Much Ether Is Left to Buy?
At press time, Onchain Lens has put ether’s total supply at 122.1 million ETH, bringing Bitmine’s haul to 4.9% (post its latest buy). Five percent of 122.1 million is about 6.105 million ETH and adding the new 12,500 ETH to the Oct. 5 total gives roughly 6.03 million.
That leaves about 76,000 ETH before the cap, or close to $200 million at Wednesday’s price near $2,617. For context, Bitmine only passed 6 million ether in late September, and it has been adding tens of millions of dollars a week since.
The roughly $200 million Bitmine has left to spend is about what ether ETFs lost in a single day this week. Once Bitmine reaches the cap, ether stands to lose one of its most reliable buyers.
No Comment! Be the first one.