Bitmine reduced its weekly Ethereum purchases after holdings surpassed 5.2M ETH, about 4.3% of supply.
Ethereum News
Bitmine Immersion Technologies has sharply reduced its weekly Ethereum (ETH) purchases after months of aggressive accumulation. The company bought 26,659 ETH, worth approximately $63 million, during the week ending May 11, down from a prior weekly average of more than 100,000 ETH. The update was published on May 11.
Chairman Tom Lee said the slowdown is intentional as Bitmine approaches its long-term target of owning 5% of ETH's circulating supply. "We have decided to slow down our pace of weekly accumulation from over 100,000 per week," Lee said. "Our previous pace of buys would have us reach 5% by mid-July." The company originally targeted late 2026 for reaching what Lee has called the "alchemy of 5%" threshold.
Holdings and Staking Operations
The latest purchase brought Bitmine's total holdings to 5,206,790 ETH, representing approximately 4.31% of Ethereum's current circulating supply of around 120.7 million tokens. At current prices, those holdings are worth roughly $12.1 billion. The company's total crypto and cash position stands at $13.4 billion.
Bitmine has staked 4,712,917 ETH, more than 90% of its total holdings, through its MAVAN staking platform. At a seven-day annualized yield of 2.86%, the staking operation generates approximately $319 million in annualized revenue, with a projected annual reward of $352 million at scale. Beyond ETH, Bitmine holds 201 BTC worth approximately $16.3 million, an $88 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and $775 million in cash.
Lee used the May 11 update to state his view that a crypto market recovery is underway. "Crypto spring has commenced," he said, pointing to Ethereum's recent price action and improving sentiment across software and growth stocks. He cited two primary catalysts for ETH's next cycle: Wall Street's adoption of tokenization and the growth of agentic AI.
The $2,100 Price Milestone
Lee named a specific price level to watch for confirmation. "If ETH closes above $2,100 at the end of May 2026, this would be the third consecutive monthly gain," he said. "This has never been seen in a crypto bear market. Thus, a close above $2,100 would validate that crypto spring has arrived." Since the start of 2026, Bitmine has accumulated more than 1 million ETH.
Bitmine holds more ETH than any other publicly listed company. It is followed by SharpLink, chaired by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, with approximately 872,984 ETH, and The Ether Machine with around 496,712 ETH, according to SER data. Bitmine is the second-largest public crypto treasury company overall, behind Strategy, which holds 818,869 BTC worth approximately $66.5 billion. Bitmine uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from NYSE American on April 9, 2026, backed by institutional investors including Ark Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera, Kraken, DCG and Galaxy Digital.
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