Ethereum Foundation Sells $23 Million More in ETH to Tom Lee’s BitMine

The Ethereum Foundation announced Friday that it has completed a third over-the-counter sale of 10,000 ETH to BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest Ethereum treasury company, following a transaction of the same size completed last week.

The deal was struck at an average price of $2,292 per ETH, per an X post, bringing the total transaction value to roughly $22.9 million. Ethereum was recently trading just above that level at $2,305, rising about 2% over the last 24 hours per data from CoinGecko.

“This sale funds the Ethereum Foundation’s core operations and activities, including protocol R&D, ecosystem development, community grant funding and more,” the Foundation posted, echoing past messages regarding sales.

Just last Friday, the Ethereum Foundation announced a separate 10,000 ETH sale to the firm, at an average price of $2,387 per coin. In March, the Foundation made its first ETH sale to BitMine, offloading 5,000 ETH at approximately $2,043 per coin. The Foundation also conducted a 10,000 ETH sale to rival treasury firm Sharplink last July.

Ethereum’s price has dropped significantly since hitting a high of $4,946 last summer, a period that also saw the rise of numerous Ethereum treasury companies riding broader crypto market momentum.

Despite being the largest such firm—with over $11.7 billion in holdings—BitMine is currently sitting on an unrealized loss exceeding $6.3 billion due to the price decline.

Earlier this week, BitMine disclosed its biggest Bitcoin purchase of the year, acquiring 101,901 ETH over the previous week—about $235 million worth at the current price. As of Monday, the company held more than 5.078 million ETH. (Disclosure: BitMine Chairman Tom Lee is an investor in Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

BitMine stock (BMNR) ticked up on Friday, recently up 1.75% at a price of $21.78. BMNR is up more than 10% in the last month, per Yahoo Finance, with the price of Ethereum itself rising 7.5% during the same span.