Tom Lee and BitMine’s Latest Ethereum Purchase Faces Community Backlash

Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies has bought 10,000 ether (ETH) from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) through an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction. The trade settled at an average price of $2,387, the foundation has confirmed.

The deal moves roughly $23.9 million worth of ether from the foundation’s treasury. The buyer is one of Ether’s most vocal institutional accumulators. It has also revived familiar criticism of the foundation’s selling cadence.

Foundation sells again from its safe multisig

The 10,000 ETH was left in a foundation-controlled safe wallet through an OTC block trade, according to the EF’s announcement. Proceeds at the stated average price of $2,387 amount to approximately $23.87 million.

The foundation said the sale funds core operations, including protocol research, ecosystem grants, and community funding programs.

It pointed to a treasury policy published last June that formalized periodic ETH sales as part of ongoing treasury management.

BitMine Accumulates What the Foundation Divests

On the other side of the trade sits a very public ETH believer. Tom Lee is the co-founder of Fundstrat and the chair of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR).

He has steered the firm toward an aggressive ETH treasury strategy since 2025. The firm has become one of the more visible corporate buyers of ether on public markets.

The contrast has drawn fresh pushback. Pseudonymous researcher 0xfoobar argued the foundation is signaling weakness in its own asset by refusing to pay staff in ETH.

“There’s an element of dogfooding you’re strongly missing here. If the EF employees and contractors hate/misunderstand crypto so much that they’re unwilling to take payment in ETH, they shouldn’t be working there. Period,” the user wrote.

The sale tests the foundation’s argument that periodic divestments are routine operational housekeeping. Bitmine is emerging as a repeat institutional buyer of ether.

The contrast between Ethereum’s stewards and its biggest believers is becoming harder for the community to ignore. The foundation has yet to respond to the latest dogfooding critique.