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Bitmine buys 20,500 ETH from Galaxy as Tom Lee touts TradFi convergence

Bitmine buys 20,500 ETH from Galaxy as Tom Lee touts TradFi convergence

The purchase lifted Bitmine’s treasury to about 5.74 million ETH, or roughly 4.8% of supply, as Chairman Tom Lee argues Ethereum will sit at the center of converging traditional and crypto finance.

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Fact Check
All core claim elements are independently corroborated. Cryptopolitan and Cointelegraph both confirm the 20,500 ETH purchase for ~$35.92M (~$36M) via Galaxy Digital on 2026-07-10. Phemex and Binance Square (citing Lookonchain on-chain data) confirm the same transaction and counterparty. The stated total holdings of ~5.7M ETH (~$10B) and the 5% supply target are corroborated by Blockchair. The '$10 billion' value and 'close to 5%' framing are consistent across sources. No conflicting evidence was found; the only minor nuance is that ~5.7M ETH is about 4.7-4.8% of supply, still 'close to' the 5% goal as the claim states.
Summary

Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought 20,500 ETH from Galaxy Digital for about $35.92 million in a block trade around July 10, 2026, at roughly $1,752 per token, extending the Ethereum treasury strategy championed by Chairman Tom Lee. The company’s disclosures indicate the purchase helped lift holdings to roughly 5.74 million ETH, including a reported total of 5,742,237 ETH, equal to about 4.8% of Ethereum’s roughly 120.7 million circulating supply and close to Bitmine’s stated goal of owning 5%. Alongside the treasury buildout, Lee said on X that traditional finance and crypto are moving toward becoming “the same market,” with Ethereum at the center of that convergence. Bitmine also said its combined crypto holdings, cash, marketable securities and other investments were worth about $11.1 billion, and reported holding 206 Bitcoin, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, plus equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings. Lee has linked Ethereum’s long-term outlook to clearer U.S. crypto regulation, including the proposed CLARITY Act, and pointed to Shopify and Visa activity involving USDC on Ethereum layer-2 networks as evidence of growing real-world adoption beyond speculation. At press time, ETH was trading around $1,800, little changed over 24 hours and up 2.2% over seven days.

Terms & Concepts
  • TradFi: Traditional finance, such as banks, brokers and stock markets.
  • layer-2 networks: Scaling systems built on top of a blockchain to handle transactions more efficiently.
  • CLARITY Act: A proposed U.S. crypto market-structure bill that supporters say could provide clearer rules for digital assets and related platforms.