Yesterday I came across some news: a Wall Street giant bought $102 million worth of Bitmine shares.

My first thought wasn’t “here comes big money again,” but rather—Bitmine really nailed its transformation. From a Bitcoin mining company to an Ethereum reserve company, holding 3.24 million ETH, and now even traditional financial heavyweights are eyeing it.

After eight years in the industry, I know exactly how these institutions operate. They never touch things that are pure hype. Especially old-school institutions like JPMorgan that have always been cautious about crypto—if they’re willing to put real money in now, what they value isn’t short-term volatility, but the hard assets Bitmine now holds—the value of those millions of ETH in reserve.

This is totally different from the logic behind institutions chasing after Bitcoin ETFs back in the day. Now the target is Ethereum reserve assets. To put it plainly, even traditional finance is starting to recognize the long-term value of ETH.

Here are two methods regular people can actually use to make judgments—instead of just following the hype in the news.

**First**, when looking at companies that have transformed, focus on their core assets. For companies like Bitmine that have shifted to ETH reserves, you need to figure out whether the coins they hold are true reserves or if they’ve been staked or used elsewhere. The transparency of their assets determines whether the investment logic holds up.

**Second**, don’t just look at a single institutional position. The disclosed data here is from September 30—you can check the SEC’s EDGAR system for updates and see if they continued to increase their holdings. If institutions keep buying as the price drops, they’re truly optimistic; if they buy and then sell quickly, it’s likely just a short-term play.

I used to think miners just mined coins, sold coins, and repeated the cycle. But Bitmine’s transformation and the entry of big institutions suddenly made me realize the industry is really changing. It’s no longer about making quick money off hype, but about earning long-term returns by holding hard assets.

We ordinary people don’t have to rush to buy stocks, but we need to understand this trend—ETH is no longer just a speculative asset; even traditional institutions are starting to recognize its reserve value.

Over the years in crypto, I’ve seen too many people chasing trends and falling flat. In contrast, those who follow institutional logic and focus on hard assets always manage to ride out the market cycles. There’s no need to rush into trades—learning to spot the signals hidden in the news is much more reliable than just staring at charts.

After all, real opportunities are never created by price pumps, but by big money casting their votes with real cash. Be patient, and you’ll eventually catch your own wave.