The Winter That Won't Thaw

The 2026 Q1 has been dramatic for the crypto space, Bitcoin is down -46% from its all-time high and -30% since the January high. Ethereum is nearly 50% down from its all-time high.

Bitcoin accumulator Strategy Inc. registered a roughly $14.5 billion unrealized loss in the first quarter as the value of the Michael Saylor-led company's cryptocurrency holdings fell. Bitcoin tumbled more than 20% in the three months, the largest first-quarter drop for the notoriously volatile digital asset since 2018.

But there are bright spots. Ethereum continues to benefit from the dual tailwinds of Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain and from agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains. Bitmine has maintained the increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past four weeks, as our base case ETH is in the final stages of the 'mini-crypto winter.' In the past week, we acquired 71,252 ETH which is the highest pace of buys since the week of December 22, 2025.

The narrative split: Crypto is in pain, but institutional players are buying. That's either brilliant or desperate, depending on your macro view.

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