Ethereum has spent the quarter doing something Wall Street tends to notice: outperforming nearly everything else. Now, BitMine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee thinks institutional crypto buying could be next.
In BitMine’s weekly update, Lee argued that the strong performance of Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), and Solana (SOL) may encourage institutions to increase their crypto exposure after a standout quarter.
ETH has been the top-performing macro asset since the start of Q3, according to Lee. Through last Friday, he said Ethereum had outperformed the S&P 500 by 5,430 basis points, while Bitcoin and Solana also ranked among the three best-performing assets since June 30.
For Lee, that kind of gap matters because it changes the conversation around crypto from a speculative side bet to an asset class institutions may feel increasingly compelled to revisit.
“We believe this sets the stage for institutions to add to their crypto holdings given the substantial outperformance of crypto versus other macro assets in calendar Q3 so far,” Lee said.
The comment arrived alongside another aggressive buying update from BitMine itself.
The company purchased 28,086 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to roughly 5.9 million tokens. BitMine’s combined crypto, cash, and equity assets were valued at $15.7 billion as of September 7.
The purchases are also pushing the company closer to one of its most closely watched targets: owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. BitMine needs another roughly 171,000 ETH to reach that mark.
At its most recent weekly buying pace, that would take about six weeks.
Institutional crypto buying meets a very large ETH position
There is a catch. BitMine’s giant Ethereum position is still underwater.
CryptoQuant data puts the company’s unrealized losses at around $5 billion, although ETH’s recent rally has started to narrow that gap. The token has gained 29.7% over the past month, according to BeInCrypto Markets data.
BitMine is also trying to make the size of its position work beyond price appreciation.
More than 5 million ETH, or around 85% of its holdings, has been staked. Lee estimates that position generates approximately $330 million in annualized staking revenue.
At scale, he said annualized staking revenue could reach $386 million, based on a seven-day yield of 2.61%.
That gives BitMine another source of returns while it waits for the broader Ethereum position to recover from its unrealized loss.
The company’s stock has benefited from the same crypto rally. Lee said BMNR has gained 99% quarter-to-date, making it the fourth-best performer in the Russell 1000 index.
That combination of a rising ETH price, staking income, and a sharply higher stock price helps explain why BitMine continues to expand its holdings despite the size of its existing position.
But Lee’s bigger argument extends beyond BitMine.
His thesis is that strong crypto performance can itself become a catalyst for institutional demand. After a quarter in which digital assets have outpaced major traditional benchmarks, the question for professional investors may become less about whether crypto belongs in a portfolio and more about how much exposure makes sense.
For now, BitMine is putting that thesis into practice one ETH purchase at a time. And with the company already sitting on 5.9 million tokens, institutional crypto buying is no longer just a market theory—it is becoming an increasingly visible part of the corporate strategy around Ethereum.