Tom Lee’s BitMine purchased 96.798 ETH in a fresh accumulation framed as a tactical bet on Ethereum’s protocol upgrade and an expected shift in U.S. monetary policy. The move positions BitMine ahead of the Fusaka activation and reflects a macro-driven allocation into ETH. The company’s communication emphasizes the convergence of technical catalysts and monetary conditions as the core rationale behind the buy.
BitMine’s recent buy is part of an accelerated acquisition pace that the firm linked to two catalysts: a scheduled network upgrade and an anticipated change in Federal Reserve policy. The company’s ETH treasury now totals 3.730.000 tokens, valued at roughly $10.5 billion, underscoring the scale of its allocation.
Tom Lee argued the firm increased purchases because a more accommodative Fed—expected to halt quantitative tightening and move toward interest-rate cuts in December—would create a liquidity backdrop favorable to risk assets such as ETH. This view connects monetary easing expectations to risk-on dynamics in digital assets.
The firm acknowledged unrealized losses on the position but framed the accumulation as a long-term strategic play rather than a short-term trade. Analysts cited in the company’s messaging attach upside scenarios to the upgrade-driven narrative, which the firm says justifies maintaining and expanding its exposure. This stance ties macro liquidity and duration risk to a technology-driven thesis for value appreciation.
BitMine accumulation and macro rationale
The Fusaka upgrade is scheduled to activate on 3 de dic. de 2025 and bundles protocol changes intended to improve scalability, state efficiency and rollup economics. Two headline innovations under Fusaka are Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) and Verkle Trees.
PeerDAS is a sampling protocol that lets nodes verify data availability by checking small data slices rather than full blocks, reducing the cost of verifying Layer‑2 rollup data. Verkle Trees are a newer cryptographic state structure that makes state proofs much smaller and lowers the storage burden on nodes.
Fusaka also raises the block gas limit from 45 million to 150 million units, a change intended to expand on‑chain bandwidth and support heavier data throughput. The upgrade is projected to cut Layer‑2 transaction costs by 30–60% and speed transaction finality by an estimated factor of 3–5, presented as structural value drivers that could increase on‑chain activity, reduce friction for tokenization and make node operation lighter through support for stateless clients.
Market participants cited by the firm view Fusaka and a dovish Fed as a combined case for higher ETH. Some analysts referenced in the company briefing projected target ranges of $4.200 by year‑end 2025 and $7.800 by March 2026, framing the upgrade-plus-liquidity scenario as the key price mechanism.
BitMine’s purchase frames Ethereum’s Fusaka activation and the Federal Reserve’s December policy window as the immediate milestones to watch
