Bitmine slows Ethereum buys, targets December to own 5% of supply
Written by Stephen Katte, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Jesse Coghlan, Staff Editor. Written by Stephen Katte, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Jesse Coghlan, Staff Editor. Bitmine slows Ethereum buys, targets December to own 5% of supplyLatest NewsPublishedMay 12, 2026Tom Lee doubles down on the crypto spring, points to the Ether price rising in correlation with software stocks as further evidence.
Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has slowed the pace of its Ether purchases after previously increasing its buying rate and acquiring more than 100,000 tokens over the last three weeks.
Bitmine said on Monday that it purchased 26,659 ETH over the last week, down from the over 100,000 tokens a week it was previously maintaining, but that it was still on track for its goal to buy 5% of the token’s 120.7 million circulating supply by the end of the year.
“We have decided to slow down our pace of weekly accumulation from >100,000 per week as we originally targeted reaching the ‘alchemy of 5%’ target in late 2026,” Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said. “Our previous pace of >100k weekly buys would have us reach 5% by mid-July.”
Bitmine is the largest Ether treasury company and one of the most frequent buyers of the token, a business model it adopted from Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy.
Bitmine estimates it will reach its goal of holding 5% of the Ether supply by the end of 2026. Source: Bitmine
Bitmine plans staking of entire Ether stash
Bitmine's total staked Ether stands at over 4.7 million, and the company estimates its annual staking rewards will be roughly $352 million once its entire stash is staked. Blockchain explorer beaconcha.in has tracked over 38 million Ether staked as of Sunday.
Lee said the goal is for Bitmine to eventually stake its entire stash.
“We intend to hold and stake our ETH holdings, which means our ETH holdings are essentially reducing available supply of ETH and removed 4.3% of ETH supply since June 30th, 2025. In other words, ETH supply has been disinflationary since June 2025,” he said.
Bitmine has staked over 4.7 million Ether. Source: Bitmine
Ether hit an all-time high of $4,946 in August 2025, but it dropped in line with the rest of the crypto market toward the end of last year. It's still down 52% from its peak and has been drifting between $2,274 and $2,411 over the last seven days, according to CoinGecko.
Crypto spring in full swing
Lee also doubled down on his belief that a so-called “crypto spring has started and pointed to Ether’s price rising in correlation with software stocks as further evidence.
“Crypto spring has commenced and we wanted to highlight the importance of owning ETH as a source of diversification, and the likely drivers of this coming 'crypto bull' cycle,” he added.
“If ETH closes above $2,100 at the end of May 2026, this would be the third consecutive monthly gain – this has never been seen in a crypto bear market. Thus, a close above $2,100 would validate 'crypto spring' has arrived.”
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