BitMine will halt Ethereum accumulation at 5% supply cap, chairman Tom Lee says
BitMine Immersion Technologies will stop purchasing Ether once it reaches a hard cap of 5% of the token's circulating supply, Chairman Tom Lee announced at Token2049 in Singapore.
Speaking at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee announced that the company will halt Ether purchases once its treasury reaches a hard cap of 5% of Ethereum's total circulating supply. Lee noted that setting the limit turns the firm's accumulation target into a ceiling designed to optimize shareholder value, remarking that the company is done accumulating ahead of a projected market rally.[1][3][6][10]
BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of Oct. 4, representing roughly 4.9% of Ethereum's 122.1 million supply. Lee said the company only needs about 100,000 more ETH to hit its threshold, bringing an end to a 15-month buying campaign that began in mid-2025. Based on BitMine's latest disclosed purchase rate of 15,112 ETH in a single week, CryptoSlate projected the remaining gap of 88,586 ETH could take roughly six weeks to close.[1][2][4][5][7][10]
Once BitMine reaches the cap, it will cease raising capital for open-market purchases and pivot toward generating returns from staking. The company had approximately 5.07 million ETH staked as of Oct. 4, a balance estimated to produce about $363 million in annualized revenue. BitMine has also indicated it may sell staking rewards if needed to prevent its balance sheet from drifting past the 5% threshold. As of its latest disclosure, the firm held $643 million in cash and marketable securities, alongside roughly $4.5 billion in unrealized ETH losses reported by Coin Bureau.[8][9][10]
Key facts
- BitMine Chairman Tom Lee announced at Token2049 in Singapore that the firm will stop buying Ether once it reaches a hard cap of 5% of supply.
- BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of Oct. 4, representing roughly 4.9% of Ethereum's 122.1 million circulating supply.
- Lee said the company needs approximately 100,000 more ETH to hit the 5% cap, leaving an exact gap of 88,586 ETH based on disclosed supply figures.
- At BitMine's disclosed pace of acquiring 15,112 ETH per week, closing the gap would take an estimated six weeks.
- BitMine had roughly 5.07 million ETH staked as of Oct. 4, representing about 84% of its holdings and generating an estimated $363 million in annualized revenue.
- The company reported $643 million in cash and marketable securities and was carrying about $4.5 billion in unrealized ETH losses.
- BitMine indicated it will stop capital raises for ETH purchases once the ceiling is met and may sell staking rewards to avoid crossing the 5% threshold.
Sources · 9 sources
- CB
Coin Bureau@coinbureauPost on X ·
🚨BREAKING: Tom Lee says BitMine will "STOP" buying ETH at 5% "hard cap." "We only need to get another 100,000 ETH to get to 5%," Lee said on stage at Token2049. Lee called 5% BitMine’s “hard cap,” saying it optimizes shareholder value.
Open source - CR
CryptoSlate@CryptoSlatePost on X ·
BitMine (@BitMNR) needs about 88,600 more $ETH to hold 5% of Ethereum’s supply, based on its Oct. 4 holdings and the supply figure in its disclosure. Chairman Tom Lee (@fundstrat) says buying will stop at that threshold. At the latest disclosed pace of 15,112 ETH a week, the gap would take roughly six weeks to close. This is a projection, not company guidance; changes in Ethereum’s supply or buying pace would alter it. via @hardeyjumoh https://t.co/sSzuXABaZf
Open source - CT
Coin TelegraphArticle ·
Bitmine sets 5% Ether supply ‘hard cap’ as accumulation target nears Tom Lee said Bitmine will not accumulate Ether past 5% of the supply, turning the company’s target into a ceiling.
Open source - BC
Bitcoin.com News@BitcoinNewsPost on X ·
NEW: 💰 Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee says the firm will stop buying ETH once it hits 5% of supply, about 100,000 ETH or 6-7 weeks away. "We thought this would take five years. It took us a little over a year. Now we're going to stop," Lee said during Token2049 Singapore. 💬 https://t.co/HTWWDof8wn
Open source - WB
Wu Blockchain@WuBlockchainPost on X ·
Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee Says ETH Purchases Will Stop at 5% of Circulating Supply, Holdings Currently Near 4.9% Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said the company will stop accumulating ETH once its holdings reach 5% of the token’s circulating supply. Bitmine currently holds 6,016,414 ETH, or roughly 4.9% of the circulating supply, and needs to purchase about 100k more tokens, which would take an estimated six to seven weeks at last week’s buying pace. Bitmine has purchased ETH weekly since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025. According to its latest update, the company bought another $41 million worth of ETH last week and held approximately $643 million in cash and marketable securities.
Open source - TB
The Block@TheBlockCoPost on X ·
THE BLOCK: Tom Lee said BitMine $BMNR will stop buying ethereum:native at a 5% supply hard cap, roughly 100,000 ETH away. "We did all this buying in a bear market," Lee said at Token2049 in Singapore. "But now, we're done stacking in front of a 25X move." https://t.co/SC8d6Yr3d6
Open source - BS
BSCN@BSCNewsPost on X ·
Tom Lee makes shocking revelation at Token2049... Bitmine Immersion Technologies Chairman Tom Lee (@fundstrat) just raised a lot of eyebrows at Token2049. He formally announced that the corporation's treasury will stop acquiring $ETH weekly from the market once it acquires 5% of the total circulating Ethereum supply. This marks an end to Bitmine's 15-month-long "Alchemy of 5%" campaign. The firm currently holds 6,016,414 $ETH, which translates to about 4.9% of the total circulating supply of 122.1 million.
Open source - LD
Lark Davis@LarkDavisPost on X ·
Bitmine is officially putting a ceiling on their bags. Tom Lee said at Token2049 that 5% of ETH supply is a hard cap. They’re already at ~6.01M ETH (about 4.9% of supply), and he said they only need another 100k ETH before they stop buying. Once they hit that line, no more capital raises to keep stacking ETH, which takes endless dilution off the table. They’ve also indicated they may sell staking rewards if needed so holdings don’t drift above 5%.rewards just to keep from crossing that line.
Open source - CB
Coin Bureau@coinbureauPost on X ·
🚨ALERT: Tom Lee’s Bitmine is nearing its FINAL 100,000 ETH purchase before it STOPS accumulating. The firm already holds 6.016 MILLION ETH worth about $15.5 BILLION, or roughly 4.9% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. Bitmine has bought $ETH every week since launching its treasury strategy in June 2025. It also holds $643 MILLION in cash and marketable securities, more than enough to fund the remaining ETH needed to reach its 5% target. But the firm is sitting on roughly $4.5 BILLION in unrealized ETH losses. Once Bitmine reaches 5%, Tom Lee says the buying stops.
Open source - CR
CryptoSlateArticle ·
BitMine’s Ethereum buying spree could end in six weeks BitMine Immersion Technologies Chairman Tom Lee said the company will stop accumulating Ethereum once its holdings reach 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, capping the strategy that made it ETH’s largest corporate holder. Speaking at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, Lee said BitMine was already close to that limit and would not pursue an open-ended accumulation campaign. He said : “We only need to get another 100,000 ETH to get to 5%.” Notably, the company is actually slightly closer than Lee’s rounded estimate suggests. BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of Oct. 4, equal to about 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply cited in its latest disclosure . This means BitMine would need roughly 88,586 ETH to reach 5% of the 122.1 million ETH supply used in its calculations. At an illustrative ETH price of $2,500, acquiring the remainder could cost roughly $221 million. BitMine reported $643 million in cash and marketable securities, giving it enough disclosed liquidity to cover the gap while retaining most of that liquidity. BitMine could reach its 5% ceiling within weeks BitMine’s latest official purchase rate puts Lee’s 5% ceiling within reach before the end of the year, even if the company slows its accumulation. The company added 15,112 ETH in the week through Oct. 4, its latest disclosed weekly purchase. At that pace, acquiring the remaining 88,586 ETH would take about 5.9 weeks, putting the threshold within reach around mid-November. A faster buying program would shorten the timeline. If BitMine increased purchases to 20,000 ETH per week, it could close the gap in roughly 4.4 weeks. At a slower rate of 10,000 ETH per week, the process would take about 8.9 weeks, pushing the milestone into early December. Those scenarios are projections rather than company guidance. BitMine has not committed to a fixed weekly purchase schedule, and changes in Ethereum’s total supply could alter the number of tokens corresponding to a 5% stake. Meanwhile, there are also signs that BitMine may have already made further progress beyond its latest disclosure. On Oct. 7, blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain reported that the company appeared to acquire another 12,500 ETH worth $33.65 million through BitGo. BitMine has not yet incorporated that transaction into an official holdings update, so it is excluded from the projections above. If confirmed as an additional purchase, however, it would reduce the remaining gap to about 76,086 ETH, meaning the company could reach Lee’s ceiling sooner than the timetable implied by its latest reported holdings. That leaves BitMine approaching a point where the mechanics of its Ethereum strategy will have to change. Once purchases are constrained by the 5% limit, further growth in its ETH position would increasingly come from staking rewards rather than continued market accumulation. ETH staking takes over from accumulation BitMine is already positioning staking as a larger source of returns from its Ethereum treasury . The company had about 5.07 million ETH staked as of Oct. 4, equivalent to roughly 84% of its holdings, and estimated that position could generate about $363 million in annualized revenue. BitMine projects that staking its entire ETH balance could lift annualized revenue to roughly $431 million, based on a 2.63% annualized yield. That would make staking income increasingly important once the company can no longer expand its treasury through purchases. But earning ETH also complicates Lee’s hard cap. Staking rewards continuously add tokens to BitMine’s balance sheet. Once its holdings approach 5% of Ethereum supply, those rewards could push the company beyond the threshold even without another open-market purchase. How BitMine intends to manage that excess has not been fully established. It could leave less room below the ceiling for purchases, change how it handles staking rewards, or dispose of some ETH if needed to stay below the limit. The target itself will also move with Ethereum’s supply. A contraction would lower the number of ETH BitMine can hold while staying below 5%, while an increase would create additional capacity. That leaves BitMine with a different capital-management challenge as the accumulation phase winds down. The company has spent more than a year focused on adding ETH; maintaining Lee’s ceiling could eventually require it to manage the tokens its existing treasury produces. The post BitMine’s Ethereum buying spree could end in six weeks appeared first on CryptoSlate .
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