I first knew of Tom Lee as a Wall Street analyst who gained popularity for his views on the U.S. markets. But when he joined BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) last year, I grew far more interested in his moves.
When BitMine Immersion decided to build a digital asset treasury (DAT) dedicated to Ethereum (ETH), Lee joined as the chairman to lead the company.
Related: Tom Lee-backed penny stock surges 5,700% after surprising investment
Launched in 2015, Ethereum has become a popular blockchain choice for developers building decentralized applications (dApps). With a market cap of $266 billion, ETH is the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Lee believes that Ethereum is the future of finance as traditional finance continues to move onchain. As of Feb. 1, BitMine Immersion holds 4,285,125 ETH and 193 Bitcoin (BTC).
The company's ETH holdings are 3.55% of the total supply of the cryptocurrency as it pursues its goal of holding 5% of the total Ether supply.
However, the company is now sitting on an unrealized loss of more than $6 billion on its Ether holdings after the cryptocurrency fell from a little above $4,350 on Oct. 10, 2025, to around $2,000 at press time.
A Bitcoin maximalist went on to claim that Lee was "the final exit liquidity for OG ETH whales to get out of their worthless token." Lee pushed back and said that the argument misses what an Ethereum treasury is.
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Tom Lee says Bitmine's 'unrealized' losses reflect a feature, not a bug
BitMine Immersion Technologies is built to track the price of ETH and outperform it over a market cycle, he said. As ETH is down as part of the broader crypto downturn, Bitmine will inevitably see "unrealized" losses on its ETH holdings, he added.
But it's not a bug; instead, it is a feature, Lee underlined and wondered if the same criticism applies to index funds.
Bitmine is betting on Ether long-term as it accumulates the crypto asset and also stakes it to earn yield.
Staking is the process of locking crypto assets to verify and add blocks so that a proof-of-stake (PoS) chain like Ethereum can be secured. Those staking their crypto assets are rewarded with yields.
It's a long-term strategy but a company like Bitmine, which is heavily dependent on Ether holdings, tends to see a significant paper loss when the crypto market is facing a decline in prices.
However, Lee still believes that Ethereum is the "future of finance."
While Ether has lost 55% of its value since Oct. 10, the BMNR stock has lost 65% of its value since then and was trading at $21.87 at the time of writing.
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Feb 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
