Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion added 40,613 ether last week as prices crashed

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) added to its ether $ETH$2,050.18 holdings amid last week's crypto crash, bringing its stack to more than 4.3 million tokens worth about $8.7 billion at the current price just above $2,000.

Led by Chairman Tom Lee, the company, which is the world’s largest holder of $ETH, purchased another 40,613 tokens over the past week, though it didn't disclose the average buy price. $ETH began the week above $2,300 and plunged to as low as $1,700 before closing out the week just above $2,000.

BMNR shares are flat in early trading on Monday, though lower by 34% year-to-date.

"Bitmine has been steadily buying Ethereum, as we view this pullback as attractive, given the strengthening fundamentals,” said Lee in a press release. “In our view, the price of $ETH is not reflective of the high utility of $ETH and its role as the future of finance.”

Two-thirds of the firm’s $ETH, around 2.9 million tokens, are already staked, generating an annualized yield of $202 million.

Bitmine remains deeply underwater on its $ETH purchases. Based on data from Dropstab, the company sits on a $7.8 billion loss on its ether holdings, which it bought at an average price of $3,826.