BitMine Nears 5% Ethereum Ownership Cap, Plans to Halt ETH Accumulation

BitMine is closing in on its self-imposed limit for Ethereum holdings and says it will stop buying once that threshold is reached. Speaking at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, Chairman Tom Lee said the company needs about 100,000 more ETH to hit its target of owning 5% of Ethereum's supply. "That's a hard cap. We're not gonna be accumulating past 5%," Lee said. In its latest SEC-filed update, BitMine reported holdings of 6,016,414 ETH, roughly 4.9% of Ethereum's 122.1 million token supply. The scale of the treasury is notable, but so is the buying pattern. BitMine says it has purchased ETH every week since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025. Recent weekly additions included 27,562 ETH, then 17,362 ETH, followed by 15,112 ETH in the most recently reported week. The steady cadence has made BitMine one of the most visible recurring sources of corporate spot demand for ETH. Accumulation has also picked up speed versus earlier phases. In April, the company made a single purchase of 101,627 ETH. A June transaction added 76,881 ETH as BitMine moved closer to its long-standing 5% goal. The approaching end of BitMine's buying does not, by itself, signal weaker support for Ethereum or imply that ETH prices must fall. It does remove a known marginal buyer. With about 100,000 ETH left to acquire, BitMine's final purchases would amount to roughly $250 million to $270 million at recent prices. Once the 5% threshold is reached, incremental demand will need to come more from other corporate treasuries, ETFs, institutional investors and native crypto participants. The shift matters because BitMine is already the largest corporate Ethereum treasury by a wide margin, and its purchasing schedule has been unusually predictable.