Bitmine adds 12,532 ETH, says it holds 4.9% of supply as Tom Lee nears target
In brief
- Bitmine bought 12,532 ETH last week, valued at about $31.9 million at $2,544 per ETH.
- Bitmine's holdings reached 6,028,946 ETH, which it says is 4.9% of the 122.1 million supply.
- Chairman Tom Lee said the firm needs about 100,000 more ETH before it stops buying.
- Total crypto, cash and investment holdings stand at $16.2 billion, Bitmine said.
Closing in on the "Alchemy of 5%"
By Bitmine's own count, it's now 99% of the way to its goal of owning 5% of all ETH, a target the company calls the "Alchemy of 5%." This week's buy was smaller than the prior one. The week before, Bitmine bought $41 million of ETH.
The firm put its total crypto, cash and investment holdings at $16.2 billion, according to Decrypt's report on the release. That figure includes 214 BTC, $612 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and an $85 million stake in Eightco Holdings. Bitmine has also staked 5,067,309 ETH, which Lee said generates roughly $336 million in annualized staking revenue.
In the release, Chairman Tom Lee claimed the company's "track record of consistent buying of crypto is unmatched by any public company in the world."
Lee says the buying is nearly over
In his monthly Chairman's message last week, Lee said Bitmine needs "about 100,000 more ETH, and that's about it." He's said the firm's Ethereum buying will stop once it reaches its target.
He framed the end of accumulation as an advantage in a video:
"Now we're done stacking while a bull market is starting," Lee said in the video. "So if we're done stacking, but ETH goes up a lot, you can imagine that we'll outperform Ethereum."
Those are Lee's views, not company figures.
Lee's bull-market case
Lee predicted the crypto bull market would be "the biggest bull market we've ever seen," and tied that call to tokenization, a wealth transfer to younger investors, supply absorbed by digital asset treasury firms, and AI agents using crypto wallets.
He also said Bitmine shares, then around $26, are 90% correlated with ETH. His projection: ETH at $22,000 would put the stock somewhere between $300 and $500.
Lee pointed to the company's preferred stock as well. Bitmine's 9.5% perpetual preferred, BMNP, was issued at $80 in June and last closed at $99.53, according to the release.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bitmine's "Alchemy of 5%" goal?
It's Bitmine's stated target of owning 5% of the total ETH supply. The company says its 6,028,946 ETH equals 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply, which it describes as 99% of the way to that goal.
Will Bitmine keep buying Ethereum after it hits its target?
Chairman Tom Lee has said the firm's Ethereum buying will stop once it reaches its target. In his monthly Chairman's message, he said Bitmine needs about 100,000 more ETH.
