BitMine Immersion Technologies will stop adding to its Ethereum position once its holdings reach 5% of ETH’s total supply, Chairman Tom Lee said, outlining a limit that puts an eventual end point on the company’s accumulation strategy.
Speaking at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, Lee said BitMine is already close to that threshold and will not keep stockpiling the token indefinitely. He said, 「We only need to buy another 100,000 ETH to reach a 5% share.」
BitMine is already near the threshold
According to the latest disclosure, as of Oct. 4 BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH, equal to 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply used in the article’s calculation. On that basis, the company needs about 88,586 more ETH to reach the 5% target, slightly less than Lee’s rough estimate of 100,000 ETH.
The source cited for that figure is a chairman’s message video published on BitMine’s website on Oct. 7, 2026. At an assumed ETH price of $2,500, completing the remaining purchases would require about $221 million. BitMine has disclosed $643 million in cash and marketable securities, enough liquidity to cover the amount while still leaving most of those funds intact.
Current buying pace points to a possible move within weeks
Even if BitMine slows its pace, the company could still reach Lee’s 5% cap before year-end based on its most recent rate of purchases.
In the week through Oct. 4, BitMine added 15,112 ETH. At that pace, buying the remaining 88,586 ETH would take about 5.9 weeks, which would place the threshold around mid-November.
If purchases accelerate, the timeline would be shorter. At 20,000 ETH per week, the gap could be closed in about 4.4 weeks. If buying slows to 10,000 ETH per week, it would take about 8.9 weeks, pushing the milestone to early December.
Those figures are scenario calculations, not a fixed company plan. BitMine has not committed to a set weekly purchase amount, and changes in Ethereum’s total supply would also change the token count represented by a 5% holding limit.
Lookonchain reported a possible additional 12,500 ETH purchase
There are also signs BitMine may already have completed another round of buying after the latest disclosed holdings data. On Oct. 7, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported that the company may have acquired another 12,500 ETH through BitGo, valued at $33.65 million.
That transaction has not been included in BitMine’s official holdings update, so it is not part of the timeline calculations above. If the transaction is confirmed, the remaining gap would shrink to about 76,086 ETH, meaning the company would reach Lee’s cap sooner than previously estimated.
Staking rewards would become the main source of treasury growth
Once the 5% ceiling starts to constrain further buying, growth in BitMine’s ETH treasury would mainly come from staking rewards rather than continued purchases in the secondary market.
As of Oct. 4, BitMine had staked about 5.07 million ETH, representing 84% of its total holdings. That position is estimated to generate annualized income of as much as $363 million. BitMine also estimated that, under an assumed 2.63% annualized yield, staking all of its ETH would lift annualized income to about $431 million.
That makes staking income more important if the company can no longer keep expanding the treasury through market purchases. But staking rewards also create a problem for the hard cap Lee described. Those rewards continuously add tokens to BitMine’s balance. As holdings approach 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, staking rewards alone could push the company above the threshold even if it stops buying on the open market.
How to handle excess tokens remains undecided
BitMine has not decided how it would deal with tokens that push its position above the cap. Options mentioned in the article include leaving less room for additional purchases, changing the way staking rewards are handled, or selling part of its ETH if needed to keep its ownership ratio below the limit.
The 5% threshold itself is not static. It moves with Ethereum’s total supply. If ETH supply contracts, the number of tokens represented by that 5% cap falls. If supply expands, the cap allows for a larger token balance.
With the stockpiling phase nearing its end, BitMine is approaching a new treasury management challenge. For more than a year, the company’s focus has been on continuously buying ETH. Going forward, maintaining the holding limit set by Lee would require managing the staking rewards generated by the company’s existing treasury.