Bit Digital (BTBT) bought ether first time since October before 15% decline

Ethereum treasury firm Bit Digital (BTBT) made its first ether (ETH) purchase since the October crypto market peak, but it’s already underwater on its acquisition as crypto prices are pulling back again.

The company said it bought roughly 8,568 ether (ETH) for $20 million on May 11, at an average price of $2,334 per token.

As ETH is currently trading near $1,980, the latest acquisition is already sitting on an unrealized loss of roughly $3 million, having gone down more than 15% over the past few weeks.

CEO Sam Tabar said the “timing reflects our view that market conditions had reset to a level consistent with our thesis.” In March, he argued on X that ETH’s weakness reflected leverage unwinding rather than deteriorating fundamentals. He pointed to stablecoin settlement, tokenized assets and AI-related transactions as long-term demand drivers for the network.

Bit Digital’s move stands out as most digital asset treasury firms have scaled back or stopped with their crypto accumulation plans over the past months. Falling crypto prices and widening discounts between their stock prices and underlying crypto holdings have pushed several firms to conserve cash, scale back buying or even sell assets to pay off debt.

The New York-based firm pivoted toward an Ethereum-focused treasury strategy from its bitcoin BTC$73,016.80 miner roots last year. The company now positions itself as a “Strategic Asset Company” focused on ETH accumulation, AI infrastructure and acquisitions.

The latest purchase lifted the firm’s treasury holdings to about 158,462 ETH, worth about $313 million at current prices, with part of its ETH staked directly and another portion deployed through liquid staking products to maintain flexibility.

The company also owns a controlling stake in high-performance computing firm WhiteFiber (WYFI), closely tied to the red-hot AI infrastructure buildout.