The post Tom Lee Expects ‘Defining Year for Ethereum’ as BitMine Buys ETH Amid ‘Rock Bottom’ Vibes appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief BitMine bought 45,759 Ethereum last week, bringing its total to 4.37 million ETH worth $8.68 billion. Chairman Tom Lee remains bullish, expecting 2026 to be a “defining year for Ethereum” driven by tokenization, AI, and layer-2 adoption. Ethereum is down 60% from its 2025 peak, and Myriad users don’t expect an imminent rebound. Leading Ethereum treasury company BitMine Immersion Technologies announced Tuesday that it purchased 45,759 ETH last week—currently valued at nearly $91 million—to boost its total stash to 4.37 million ETH, worth $8.68 billion. While the company has seen the value of its holdings fall substantially in recent months with Ethereum’s 60% plunge from its all-time high mark of $4,946 set last August, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee remains optimistic about the network’s prospects. He expects 2026 to be a “defining year for Ethereum” after attending last week’s Consensus Hong Kong conference. “We see strengthening product-market fit emerging on the back of three long-duration secular drivers: (i) Wall Street via tokenization/privacy on Ethereum; (ii) AI and AI-agents using Ethereum for both collecting payments as well as verification; and (iii) creators leaning towards ‘proof of human’ and other standards running on Ethereum layer-2 (Worldchain, etc),” he said in a statement.  “It is evident that Ethereum is well positioned to garner significant share,” Lee added, “given its neutrality and 100% uptime and reliability.” BitMine’s Ethereum holdings are approximately $7.9 billion underwater, according to data from DropsTab. The publicly traded firm had disclosed its cost basis for Ethereum purchases in a late November filing with the SEC, with estimates used for more recent ETH buys. The company also holds 193 Bitcoin ($13 million worth) and $670 million in cash. It also recently invested $200 million in Beast Industries, the company of YouTube creator MrBeast. BitMine also invested $17 million into…

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Filed under: News - @ February 17, 2026 6:28 pm