Bitmine Immersion Technologies Chairman Tom Lee (@fundstrat) turned heads at Token2049 Singapore on Wednesday, formally declaring that the company will stop buying $ETH once its holdings reac
Bitmine Immersion Technologies Chairman Tom Lee (@fundstrat) turned heads at Token2049 Singapore on Wednesday, formally declaring that the company will stop buying $ETH once its holdings reach 5% of Ethereum's total circulating supply.
Speaking from the keynote stage, Lee described the threshold as a firm ceiling rather than a moving target. Lee framed the 5% limit as a firm, enforceable strategy. "That's a hard cap. We're not gonna be accumulating past 5%," he said, adding that Bitmine does not intend to own more than that share of Ethereum.
The announcement effectively closes out Bitmine's so-called "Alchemy of 5%" campaign, which began on June 30, 2025.Lee had previously left open the possibility of accumulating more than 5% of Ether's supply depending on Ethereum adoption, and said in an August interview that the company may revisit that possibility in 2027. That door now appears shut, at least for the current strategy cycle.
Bitmine's Ethereum holdings stood at 6,016,414 ETH as of October 4, 2026, valued at approximately $16.4 billion at an ETH price of $2,726.The company said its Ethereum balance represents about 4.9% of the total ETH supply of 122.1 million tokens.Lee noted the company needs roughly 100,000 ETH more to reach the 5% target.
Lee tied the ceiling directly to Bitmine's capital strategy, arguing that locking in a hard stop removes the need to keep raising funds. "We did all this buying in a bear market," Lee said. "We protected the downside for $ETH because we were buying. But now, we're done stacking in front of a 25X move."
The company has staked roughly 5.1 million tokens, about 85% of its holdings, with annualized staking revenues projected at $330 million. That staking income means Bitmine will continue to accumulate small amounts of $ETH passively even after active purchases stop, a nuance Lee acknowledged.
Once Bitmine reaches the cap, Ether stands to lose one of its most reliable buyers, with the remaining amount left to spend roughly equivalent to what Ether ETFs lost in a single day in recent trading.
Sources:CoinTelegraph: BitMine Sets 5% Ether Supply Hard Cap as Accumulation Target NearsBitcoin.com News: Tom Lee's Bitmine Nears 5% of Ether Supply With $41M ETH BuyCoinGape: Tom Lee's BitMine Adds $41M in ETH as Holdings Reach 6.02M Tokens
