Tom Lee: Crypto market has entered a bull cycle, BMNR outperformed ETH in the first 9 months of this year

PANews reported on October 6, citing PRNewswire, that Tom Lee, Chairman of Ethereum treasury company Bitmine, said that as the crypto market enters what he believes is a bull cycle, the performance of Bitmine (BMNR) shares relative to Ethereum (ETH) during the 2025-2026 bear market is worth noting. In the first 9 months of 2026, ETH's price fell 10%, while BMNR fell only 3%, achieving a relative outperformance of about 731 basis points (7.31 percentage points). BMNR's share performance reflects the company's commitment to continuously optimizing shareholder returns, including executing the largest corporate treasury share buyback program in the crypto industry, repurchasing 21 million shares in 2026 alone.

In addition, Tom Lee also noted that from the third quarter of 2026 to date, ETH has outperformed the S&P 500 index by 6,832 basis points. Against a backdrop of macro pressures including a hawkish Fed stance, rising oil prices, rising global bond yields, and tightening financial conditions, ETH still demonstrated relatively strong performance, leading other major macro assets.