BitMine buys $199M in Ether as smart money traders bet on ETH decline

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: BitMine buys $199M in Ether as smart money traders bet on ETH decline Original Link: BitMine Immersion Technologies, the world’s largest corporate Ether holder, continues buying the dip, despite the industry’s most successful traders betting on Ethereum’s price fall.

BitMine acquired $199 million worth of Ether (ETH) during the past two days, through a $68 million ETH acquisition on Saturday and another $130.7 million buy on Friday, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain.

With the latest investments, BitMine now holds $11.3 billion, or 3.08%, of the total Ether supply, closing in on its 5% accumulation target, according to data from the StrategicEthReserve.

BitMine’s continued accumulations are a strong sign of conviction in Ether’s long-term growth potential. The company holds an additional $882 million in cash reserves, which may be used for more Ether accumulation.

BitMine’s investment comes amid a significant slowdown in digital asset treasury (DAT) activity, which saw corporate Ether acquisitions fall 81% in three months, from 1.97 million Ether in August to 370,000 in net ETH acquired in November.

Despite the slowdown, BitMine accumulated the lion’s share, or 679,000 Ether worth $2.13 billion during the past month.

Smart money traders are betting on Ether’s price decline

The crypto industry’s best-performing traders by returns, who are tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen’s blockchain intelligence platform, are betting on the short-term depreciation of Ether’s price.

Smart money traders added $2.8 million in short positions over the past 24 hours, as the cohort was net short on Ether, with a cumulative short position of $21 million, according to Nansen.

Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a significant driver of liquidity for Ether, also continue to lack demand.

The spot Ether ETFs recorded $75.2 million in net positive outflows for the second consecutive day on Friday, following the $1.4 billion in monthly outflows in November, according to Farside Investors.