BitMine Bleeds $6 Billion: Has Tom Lee’s Ethereum Supercycle Bet Turned Fatal?

As the Ethereum (ETH) terms reels from a crisp sell-off, fewer names person drawn much attraction than BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the nationalist institution chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.

Once a humble crypto-mining hardware firm, BitMine reinvented itself arsenic the largest firm holder of Ethereum, amassing astir 4.24 cardinal ETH, oregon astir 3.5% of the full supply.

With the ETH terms present trading adjacent multi-month lows and societal media buzzing astir $5–7 cardinal successful unrealized losses, a azygous question dominates crypto Twitter: what would really hap if BitMine sold its Ethereum now?

The abbreviated answer: it would apt beryllium 1 of the astir destabilizing liquidation events successful Ethereum’s history.

At existent prices of $2,408, BitMine’s ETH stash is worthy astir $10.2 billion, down sharply from an estimated $15.6 cardinal invested astatine mean introduction prices person to $3,600–$3,900.

Selling that full presumption would mean unloading much than 4 cardinal ETH into a marketplace that typically trades tens of billions of dollars per day, yet crossed thousands of participants, not a azygous seller.

Even if executed gradually, specified measurement would overwhelm bid books. Analysts constituent to humanities whale liquidations showing that acold smaller dumps person triggered 10–30% terms crashes successful hours.

In BitMine’s case, forced selling could plausibly propulsion ETH down different 20–40%, turning today’s insubstantial losses into realized damage.

Instead of walking distant with $10 billion, BitMine mightiness nett $5–7 cardinal aft slippage, according to marketplace extent estimates, efficaciously locking successful a multi-billion-dollar loss.

Roughly 2 cardinal ETH of BitMine’s holdings are staked, earning astir 2.8% annually done Ethereum’s staking mechanism. That yield, worthy hundreds of millions per twelvemonth astatine scale, would vanish instantly upon exit.

More importantly, staked ETH can’t beryllium sold instantly. Ethereum’s exit queue could hold withdrawals for days oregon adjacent weeks, meaning BitMine couldn’t dump everything astatine erstwhile adjacent if it wanted to.