Tom Lee's Bitmine favors share buybacks to ether purchases as crypto declines
- Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) resumed share buybacks after a roughly 10-week pause, purchasing 2.04 million shares for about $45.9 million last week.
- The Ethereum treasury firm has spent nearly $400 million buying 22.9 million shares for this year and said it would continue purchases when management considers the stock undervalued.
- Chairman Tom Lee said the recent crypto selloff presents an opportunity, arguing that cryptocurrencies have weathered the market pullback better than artificial intelligence-related stocks.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR$21.57 resumed share repurchases after a roughly 10-week pause, while adding ether ETH$2,490.55 as Chairman Tom Lee said he sees an opportunity in the recent crypto selloff.
The Ethereum treasury firm bought 2.04 million shares last week at an average price of $22.48, spending about $45.9 million. It was Bitmine's first buyback since Aug. 17, when the company wrapped up a five-week stretch of repurchases totaling roughly 21 million shares for $350 million.
The latest purchases bring Bitmine's total buybacks this year to 22.9 million shares, worth nearly $400 million. The company said it plans to keep buying back stock when management believes its shares are undervalued.
The shift comes as Lee argues that crypto has held up better than AI-related stocks during the recent market downturn, which he blamed on investors pulling back from riskier assets
Crypto got pulled down by the same “'risk off' forces behind the AI sell-off," Lee said in a Monday statement. “ETH has fallen 13% from its recent peak while US semiconductors ($SOXX) is down 20% in that same timeframe. We believe this is further evidence that a crypto bull market is underway.”