BitMine Immersion chairman Tom Lee pushed back against criticism of its growing paper losses this week, saying the drawdown reflected the design of its ethereum treasury strategy rather than a flaw in execution.
In a series of posts on X, Lee said BitMine is built to track the price of ether and outperform it over a full market cycle, comparing its structure to an index-style product rather than a tactical trading tool.
However, with crypto markets in a slump, the firm said unrealized losses on its ETH holdings are inevitable.
“Crypto is in a slump, so naturally ETH is down,” Lee wrote, adding that paper losses are “not a bug – it’s a feature” and questioning whether similar studies are applied to index funds during market declines.
These tweets miss the point of an ethereum treasury:
– BitMine is designed to track the price of $ETH
– outperform over the cycle (think ETH)
– crypto is in a slump, so naturally ETH is down$BMNR will see “unrealized” losses on our holdings of ETH during these times:
-… https://t.co/VpoNjAnJdC— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FSInsight.com (@fundstrat) 3 February 2026
The comments follow recent reports showing BitMine sitting on more than $6 billion in unrealized losses after ether’s fall dragged the value of its 4.24 million ETH holdings down to around $9.6 billion from nearly $14 billion in October.
The firm added more than 40,000 ETH shortly before the recent low, intensifying focus on its balance sheet exposure.
BitMine has framed itself as an ether tax company rather than a discretionary buyer, with its strategy centered on long-term ETH accumulation and stake yield rather than short-term pricing.
It’s a similar approach used by some bitcoin-focused treasury firms, which argue that volatility is the cost of maintaining long-term exposure to a core asset.
But the scale of BitMine’s holdings means that price fluctuations have an overall impact on reported results, especially during periods of thin liquidity and forced selling across derivatives markets.
While the firm has previously estimated annual betting revenue of around $164 million, that income provides only limited offset during sharp moves.
Chairman Tom Lee has struck a more cautious tone on short-term market conditions, warning that crypto is still working through a deleveraging phase that could stretch into early 2026.
However, Lee’s latest comments make it clear that the company remains committed to its thesis.
“Bottom line,” the firm said, “ethereum is the future of finance.”
