Tom Lee’s Ethereum Bet Is Costing Bitmine Billions On Paper, And He’s Still Buying
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), led by Tom Lee, lost over $6 billion in its most recent fiscal year, with almost all of it a paper loss on its Ethereum (ETH) holdings. The company has kept buying the token anyway.Bitmine reported a net loss of $6.31 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, it said in an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A year ago, the company made $348.6 million. The loss amounted to $13.11 a share, the filing said.The company didn’t sell its Ethereum at a loss. Some $6.23 billion of the total was an unrealized loss, meaning Bitmine put down the value of its holdings as prices dropped. Last year, the same line showed a $805 million gain.The filing showed revenue jumped to $124.8 million from $6.1 million a year earlier, driven by staking and validation, which accounted for $121.4 million, or about 97% of the total. Costs were still much higher. General and administrative expenses were $376.9 million, about three times revenue.According to Koyfin, analysts estimated average revenue to be $77.45 million, with an EPS of $0.13 per share, with Bitmine missing both revenue and EPS. was up over 0.6% in pre-market. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BMNR remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, accompanied by ‘high’ chatter levels over the past day.Ethereum's Drawdown Powers The LossAccording to the filing, Bitmine held 5.9 million ETH, or about $14.6 billion, at the end of August, which was around 4.9% of the circulating supply of Ethereum. The company also held 211 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $16.6 million. Ethereum's price declined about 44% during the year.The company reported that during that period, the price ranged from $1,506 to $4,763. Bitmine carries its crypto at fair value, so every price move flows through to its earnings. The company warned that "changes in ETH prices are expected to continue to result in significant volatility in our reported results."How Bitmine Bought Its ETHBitmine sold its own stock to buy Ethereum. The company sold 395.1 million shares at market value, generating gross proceeds of $13.2 billion. Its shares outstanding surged to 613.3 million from 232.4 million in one year.However, the company also began to buy back its stock. It bought back around 20.8 million shares in July and August at an average price of $17 each, according to a filing. The company still had about $3.6 billion left in a $4 billion buyback program.Lee Keeps Adding EthereumThe purchases have not slowed despite the losses. On Monday, it bought 9,587 ETH. Since the acquisition started in mid-2025, the company has purchased Ethereum every week, Lee said. It wants to increase its Ethereum holdings over time, but it is not obligated to buy more.