The Ethereum price latest market slump has placed Wall Street veteran Tom Lee’s ambitious $1.3 billion in ETH treasury bet under severe pressure, as whales and institutional funds begin to retreat from the world’s second-largest crypto asset.
Ethereum has fallen over 20% in two days, sliding below $3,300 and erasing more than $1 billion in leveraged positions. The correction has pushed ETH down about 30% from its August peak, marking its weakest level since mid-July.
Backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, Bitmine adopted a Bitcoin-style corporate treasury model, but its funds are now “fully invested and under strain,” leaving little room for defensive moves.
Bitmine’s market capitalization-to-NAV ratio has plunged from 5.6 in July to 1.2, while its stock has tumbled 70% from its peak, reflecting a sharp reassessment of crypto-treasury valuations.
Another Ethereum-holding firm, ETHZilla, has already liquidated $40 million worth of ETH to restore its balance sheet, signaling growing corporate capitulation across the sector.
Technical indicators paint a cautious picture. ETH has fallen below its 50-day moving average ($4,094), with the RSI near 31, suggesting near-oversold conditions but no confirmed reversal. Analysts warn that failure to hold the $3,300 support could trigger a deeper correction toward $3,000–$2,700 zones.
Despite the downturn, Ethereum’s network fundamentals remain strong. It continues to process the highest on-chain value among smart contract platforms, and Vitalik Buterin’s proposed Layer-2 upgrade aims to cut rollup withdrawal times to one or two days, potentially boosting adoption.
However, for now, Lee’s high-stakes Ethereum wager stands as a cautionary tale of over-leveraged optimism colliding with a cooling market, leaving investors to wonder whether Bitmine’s billion-dollar loss marks the start, or the bottom, of Ethereum’s latest cycle.
Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview
