BlackRock Buys $961 Million of Ethereum (ETH) in Eight-Day Accumulation

BlackRock's $3.16B Eight-Day Accumulation

BlackRock has revived its institutional accumulation at speed, with on-chain data showing the asset manager purchased roughly $3.16 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) in just eight days. The iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) accounted for 385,633 ETH — approximately $961 million — over the stretch, while the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) added 22,722 BTC worth about $2.2 billion. Both allocations were moved through Coinbase Prime, the institutional prime-brokerage platform, according to on-chain analysis of the trust wallets. The pace of buying has made BlackRock the dominant single manager across both the Ethereum and Bitcoin ETF complexes.

The Ethereum purchases extend a longer streak. ETHA recorded net inflows on nine consecutive trading days totaling $1.02 billion, expanding the fund's net assets to roughly $8.63 billion. IBIT, meanwhile, logged $2.302 billion of net inflows across nine straight trading days between August 17 and 27, lifting the value of its Bitcoin holdings to $62.29 billion at the time of writing. For readers new to these vehicles, a spot crypto ETF holds the underlying asset directly, so each net inflow translates into on-chain coin purchases by the fund's custodian.

BlackRock's yield-focused vehicle adds a further layer of demand. The iShares Staking Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) has taken in $130.54 million over the past two months, growing its net assets to $872 million. Since launch, ETHB has registered only one month of net outflows — $10.06 million in June — a pattern that points to sustained institutional appetite for staking-yield ETH exposure. Taken together, the value of BlackRock's entire digital-asset portfolio reached approximately $71.79 billion as of Friday.

Tom Lee's Ten-Day Warning

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies — the largest Ethereum treasury company — warned that investors who step aside to wait for an exact market bottom routinely end up worse off. Drawing on more than a decade of crypto market history, Lee noted that missing just the ten strongest days is enough to turn an entire year's return negative, arguing that holding a consistent position captures far more upside than trying to time entries.

His remarks follow a violent mid-August advance that carried Ethereum from around $1,900 to nearly $2,600 in a matter of days — a move still traceable on the live ETH price chart. The rally added roughly $500 billion to total crypto market capitalization within days and forced large-scale liquidations of bearish short positions, with forced buybacks accelerating the climb further.

Lee framed the advance as a “course correction” in which price begins to reflect improving fundamentals. Where prior downturns featured corporate exits and shrinking usage, he pointed to expanding adoption: major financial institutions now use Ethereum as the settlement layer for tokenizing assets, with Robinhood Chain and Coinbase's Base — both Ethereum Layer 2 networks — already handling tokenized equities. He also flagged smart contract infrastructure as the key enabler for a second demand wave: AI agents transacting small, high-frequency payments that require instant machine-to-machine settlement.

BitMine itself has accumulated more than $14 billion worth of ETH and targets eventual ownership of 5% of Ethereum's total supply. The company's staking operations now generate nearly all of its revenue, as we detailed in our earlier report, Bitmine's Ethereum (ETH) Staking Revenue Hits 98% of Total Income. In Lee's view, tokenization and AI-driven demand remain underpriced at current ETH levels. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bybit.

$2,508 Resistance in Focus

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $2,508.45 resistance at 84/100 — a STRONG band driven by the confluence of a high-volume node, the daily pivot point and overbought RSI and Stochastic readings — with spot trading at $2,500.81, down 0.16% over 24 hours. The nearest support, $2,472.94, scores 74/100 via a Flip R→S signal, the Fibonacci 0.114 retracement and a fresh MACD cross. RSI prints 76.74 and the broader trend remains an uptrend. Derivatives positioning is mildly leverage-heavy: funding at 0.0046%, open interest near $9.81 billion and a 1.30 long/short account ratio, alongside a Fear & Greed reading of 73 (Greed). A daily close above $2,508.45 opens the path toward $2,855; losing $2,472.94 would invalidate the near-term bullish thesis.