Exchange Ranking
Top Exchanges
24h Volume Ranking
Popularity Ranking
Exchange BTC Balance
Proof of Reserves
Decentralized Exchanges
Funding Rate
Funding Heatmap
Liquidation Data
Max Pain
Long/Short Ratio
Whale L/S Ratio
Binance/Okex/Huobi L/S
Bitfinex Margin L/S
ETF Tracker
Solana ETF
XRP ETF
Hong Kong ETF
Bitcoin Treasuries
Crypto Reversal
Ethereum Reserves
HyperLiquid Wallet Analysis
Hyperliquid Whale Watch
Large Transactions
On-chain Movement
Bitcoin ROI
Stablecoin Market Cap
Options Analysis
News
Articles
Economic Calendar
Features
Wallet
Contract Calculator
Security
Collections
Watchlist
Following
ETH BitMine: Stop buying when the cumulative holding of ETH reaches 5%, starting a new chapter in "alchemy"
Starting from June 30, 2025, BitMine Immersion Technologies (hereinafter referred to as BitMine) has continued to purchase Ethereum (ETH) every week, which has become the most stable source of demand for the token. BitMine Chairman Tom Lee announced that the company will end this long-term accumulation plan when its positions reach 5% of total circulation.
The "5% hardtop" target is approaching
At the Token2049 conference in Singapore, Tom Lee made it clear that once BitMine's ETH proportion reaches 5%, the company will stop buying. Recently, BitMine purchased approximately 15,112 ETH units, bringing its total holdings to 6,016,414 units, accounting for approximately 4.9% of Ethereum's 122.1 million units in circulation.
Lee called the company's process towards this threshold the "alchemy of 5%" and set 5% as a "hard upper limit." Currently, the company is only about 100,000 ETH away from this target. If last week's buying pace is maintained, it is expected that it will take another six to seven weeks to make up for this gap.
"We thought it would take five years, but it only took a little over a year." Lee said with emotion.
Maintain position balance through pledge proceeds
Lee pointed out that BitMine can prevent its shareholding from exceeding the 5% cap by selling the ETH proceeds from pledge. In an interview with Bankless back in August this year, Lee emphasized that BitMine does not need to sell any ETH due to financial pressure. Because the annual pledge award of approximately US$300 million is enough to cover the annual dividend expense of US$30 million to US$35 million corresponding to its 9.5% preferred shares.
"Rather than selling Ethereum, we are more inclined to explore how to monetize existing positions." He said at the time. In addition, Lee also mentioned that if companies start holding ETH as long-term assets, holding more than 5% will be extremely reasonable, and said the company will revisit this issue in 2027.
Strategic significance of stopping buying
Stopping continuous acquisitions of ETH means that BitMine no longer needs to rely frequently on capital market financing. Lee believes this will help its share price more closely track ETH's price movements as it rises. Previously, BitMine supported its treasury funds through a $300 million perpetual preferred stock issue in June and a multi-billion-dollar share repurchase program.
Even if new purchases are stopped, BitMine's position may still grow. Of its total assets worth approximately US$13.8 billion, 5,067,309 ETH (approximately 84%) have been pledged through BitMine's MAVAN network, which is expected to generate approximately US$363 million per year based on a seven-day yield of 2.63%. Selling these proceeds is exactly what Lee is proposing to keep his shareholding below 5%.
Market Performance and Future Outlook
It is worth noting that most of BitMine's positions were purchased when Ethereum was at bull market highs. At current prices, the company faces unrealized losses of approximately $4.5 billion. On Wednesday, ETH prices closed at around $2,567, a drop of nearly 6%.
尽管短期承压，但Lee依然看好长期前景。他曾预测，随着代币化和AI智能体的发展，Ether最终有望超越Bitcoin。
