Bitmine ETH buying slows after 5.2 million target

Tom Lee has slowed Bitmine ETH purchases after the firm amassed over 5.2 million tokens and 4.3% of Ethereum’s supply.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) bought 26,659 ETH last week worth roughly $63 million, sharply down from the more than 100,000 ETH it had been acquiring each week for months. The purchase lifted total holdings to over 5.2 million ETH, worth approximately $12.1 billion, making Bitmine the world’s largest Ethereum treasury company.

Chairman Tom Lee said the firm had deliberately reduced its pace. “We have decided to slow down our pace of weekly accumulation from over 100,000 per week,” he said. “Our previous pace of buys would have us reach 5% by mid-July.”

Why Bitmine is pulling back on purchases

Bitmine originally expected to reach its 5% Ethereum supply target in late 2026. The aggressive accumulation pace shortened that timeline to weeks, prompting a reassessment. The company now holds 4.31% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of approximately 120.7 million ETH.

Lee reiterated his view that “crypto spring” has begun, pointing to Ethereum’s recent price recovery. “If ETH closes above $2,100 at the end of May, this would be the third consecutive monthly gain. This has never been seen in a crypto bear market,” he said.

Since the start of 2026, Bitmine has acquired more than 1 million ETH. Its total crypto, cash, and equity holdings stood at $13.4 billion as of May 10, including 201 Bitcoin, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and $775 million in cash.

Staking strategy and what comes next

Bitmine has staked 4,712,917 ETH, representing more than 90% of its total holdings and generating an estimated $319 million in annualised staking rewards based on a 2.86% seven-day yield. That makes it the largest ETH staker of any public company globally.

The company’s MAVAN staking platform, launched earlier in 2026, is being positioned to serve institutional clients alongside Bitmine’s own treasury operations.

Lee said Ethereum’s two primary drivers going forward are Wall Street’s move to tokenization and the rise of agentic AI systems relying on public blockchains for payments and verification.