- BitMine acquired $375.18 million worth of ETH as the Ethereum network gears up for the Fusaka upgrade.
- The company’s Ether portfolio is trading between $630.41 million and $1.04 billion in unrealized losses.
- On-chain developers are preparing to introduce the ZK “Secret Santa” system to enhance user privacy on Ethereum.
Ethereum (ETH) is about to undergo a massive upgrade with the upcoming Fusaka upgrade on Wednesday. The update essentially offers a slew of new features designed to boost the performance, scalability, security, and efficiency of the chain, trickling down even to Layer 2 (L2) networks.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, Inc. (BMNR), looking to capitalize on the big event, has announced yet another massive Ether purchase. However, it’s currently sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in unrealized losses from its ETH bet.
BitMine Locks In 3.73 Million Ethereum Tokens
According to its press release on Monday, the company, chaired by veteran trader and Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, secured 96,798 ETH last week for $375.18 million, averaging around $3,874 per token.
The move increases BitMine’s holdings to 3,726,499 ETH. Meanwhile, it has already invested more than $11.2 billion to build up its Ether treasury at an average purchase price of $3,008 per token.
Bitmine maintains its status as the world’s top Ethereum digital asset treasury (DAT). Meanwhile, it’s the second-largest DAT in terms of overall reserve value, next to Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).
The company’s huge position in Ether, however, has exposed its portfolio to unrealized losses as the token swung between a $2,720.44 low and a $2,838.83 high in the last 24 hours heading to Tuesday noon (UTC). ETH’s fluctuations during the period have widened its unrealized losses from around $630.41 million to $1.07 billion.
A Timely Buy
Lee believes that BitMine’s latest acquisition was spot-on, as the Ethereum chain is about to transition to the Fusaka protocol via a hard fork. He is also bullish about the upcoming US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on December 10, which he expects will bring another interest rate cut, and the US central bank’s decision to end quantitative tightening (QT). Additionally, he is confident the market will find its bearings again after the effects of the October 10 liquidation shock have waned.
“Collectively, we see these acting as positive tailwinds for ETH prices, and thus, we stepped up our weekly purchases of ETH by 39%,” said Lee.
ZK ‘Secret Santa’ Proposal
Adding fuel to the optimism on the fundamentals of Ethereum is the ZK “Secret Santa” proposal. The new feature, which is currently under development, aims to enhance privacy in blockchain interactions.
As its name implies, the incoming protocol upgrade will introduce a Secret Santa-style matching system that will employ zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to enable anonymous and trustless transactions on the network. Its goal is to allow users to engage in private transactions, leveraging smart contracts and a dedicated protocol layer to manage confidential matching and subsequent asset transfers without compromising the blockchain’s decentralized and auditable nature.
