Tom Lee’s BMNR Is Sitting On $8 Billion In Unrealized Losses On Its Ethereum Position, Eyes A Russell 1000 Inclusion

• Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies was sitting on nearly $8 billion in unrealized Ethereum-linked losses with an average entry near $3,500.
• Bitmine and Sharplink Gaming were added to FTSE Russell’s preliminary Russell 3000 inclusion list.
• Ethereum faces fresh pressure as senior Ethereum Foundation researchers depart and critics question ETH’s weakening performance against Bitcoin.

Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) holds roughly 5.8 million Ethereum (ETH) tokens, a position that has now translated into nearly $8 billion in unrealized losses. 

The pressure around that position has spilled into the market debate. Crypto trader Rekt Fencer argued that ETH/BTC was sitting at an all-time low, while Ethereum’s chart “looks dead,” questioning what could ultimately “save” Lee’s aggressive buying strategy as Bitmine continues accumulating billions of dollars worth of ETH.

However, Lee is still doubling down. Bitmine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, was added to FTSE Russell’s list for inclusion in the large-cap Russell 3000 index alongside Sharplink Gaming (SBET) on Friday, a move that could potentially force passive index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to collect the stock if the inclusion becomes final. Lee separately noted that Bitmine was also “on the preliminary list for inclusion into the large-cap Russell 1000.”

Lee noted that many active managers only purchase Russell 1000 constituents and estimated that passive funds typically hold between 20% and 25% of a company’s float. That means index-tracking ETFs and passive investment funds could eventually become automatic buyers of Bitmine shares if the company formally enters the index.

Ethereum’s price was trading at $2,107, up over 3% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ETH moved to ‘neutral’ from ‘bearish’ while chatter around it stayed in the ‘high’  levels during the past day.

Macro Risks Continue Building

Although Lee described the Russell 1000 inclusion as “positive” development for Bitmine, the broader macro scene remains complicated. On Friday, Lee warned that markets could still face a major correction later this year, driven by midterm elections, tightening petroleum inventories, and broader macro uncertainty, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued hovering near record highs.

That cautious outlook was amplified by macro analyst Henrik Zeberg, who argued on Sunday that the “stock market is in LaLa-Land” and warned that weakening consumers could ultimately trigger a broader market crash.

Ethereum Faces Growing Internal Pressure

At the same time, Ethereum itself is facing growing internal criticism. Simon Dedic, the Founder of Moonrock Capital, a crypto-native venture capital boutique firm, said that nine senior Ethereum Foundation (EF) researchers and key operators had exited the organization this year alone, including several longtime ecosystem figures. Dedic argued the departures represented a “massive red flag” regardless of how the restructuring narrative is framed.

The debate comes as Ethereum’s role in institutional tokenization infrastructure also remains under scrutiny. Gabriel Shapiro, a prominent crypto lawyer, questioned whether regulators would ultimately allow synthetic token structures tied to real-world assets, while others defended Ethereum’s decentralization and uptime as key advantages for institutional finance applications.

Read also: US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Picks Up Speed — Congress Has A Six-Month Window To Make It Law, Warns Congressman Begich

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