Ether Stays Above $2,800 as Tom Lee's BitMine Acquires 97K ETH

TL;DR

• Ether is trading at $2,804, down by less than 1% in the last 24 hours.

• The bearish performance comes despite continued institutional demand.

ETH Recovers Above $2,800 After Brief Dip

The cryptocurrency market has started December bearish, with prices of the major cryptocurrencies currently in the red. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down by less than 1% in the last 24 hours and is now trading above $2,800.

The coin briefly dropped to the $2,720 region on Monday but has bounced back amid slightly improved macroeconomic conditions. 

The bearish performance comes despite BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the Ethereum-centric crypto treasury firm helmed by Fundstrat's Thomas Lee, announced on Monday that it acquired 96,798 Ether coins last week, continuing its buying spree amid the current market conditions. 

This latest acquisition means that the firm now holds 3.73 million Ether tokens, worth about $10.5 billion at the latest prices. This extends BitMine’s lead as the largest Ethereum treasury company. The firm also holds 192 bitcoin BTC, a $36 million stake in Eightco Holdings (ORBS) and $882 million in cash.

With the bearish market conditions, BitMine is estimated to be sitting on nearly $4 billion in unrealized losses on its ETH stash.

Thomas Lee cited current market conditions and the upcoming Ethereum network upgrade as key drivers of the company’s increased exposure. The Fusaka upgrade, expected to activate on December 3, is designed to improve scalability, security, and usability on the Ethereum network.

Furthermore, Lee added that the Federal Reserve is expected to halt quantitative tightening (QT) this month and will likely cut interest rates during its next meeting on December 10th.