Right after Bitmine reportedly bought a large amount of イーサ last week, on Tuesday it allegedly moved about 9,600 ETH (worth over $20 million at current prices) to the hot wallet of a major institutional custody platform in two separate transfers. You can track it from Arkham’s data, and the two-stage transfers of 5,300 ETH and 4,300 ETH via an intermediary wallet look like a typical operational pattern of institutional investors.

Looking only at this move, you might think, “Are they selling?” but it doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. The transfer to a custody platform could be for various reasons—portfolio rebalancing, collateral management, or preparing for OTC trades. In recent times, Bitmine has been accelerating its purchasing pace after deciding that cryptocurrencies are in a bottoming range, and since it also holds more than 4.5 million tokens, this is likely part of strategic asset management rather than just locking in profits.

Looking at the entire portfolio, it has fallen from a peak of $16 billion in October 2024 to $2.25 billion, but this drop reflects only the decline in ETH prices rather than Bitmine selling. ETH is currently trading at around $2,250, and how it behaves in the recovery phase from here is something to watch.