Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee confirmed the company acquired 71,672 Ether over the past week, taking advantage of ETH's pullback below $2,200 to add to what is already the largest Ether treasury held by any publicly listed company. The purchase brings Bitmine's total holdings to more than 5.2 million ETH, putting the company within reach of its stated goal of holding 5% of Ethereum's circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens, a milestone Lee said the company expects to reach sometime in 2026. Bitmine operates on a model similar to Strategy's Bitcoin accumulation approach, consistently buying Ether through market downturns rather than waiting for price confirmation before adding to its position.The timing of the purchase coincided with broader dip-buying activity in the Ether market.

Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain flagged over the weekend that an OG Ethereum whale who had sold their entire holdings approximately a year ago returned to the market, purchasing 1,951 ETH at around $2,182 with speculation that further buying may follow. Ether has been trading between $2,081 and $2,341 over the past seven days and was sitting around $2,128 at the time of writing, down 8.7% over the same period. Lee attributed the sustained price pressure on ETH to rising oil prices following Middle East conflict escalation, arguing that a reversal in crude prices could be the catalyst that unlocks a meaningful recovery in Ether's price.