Bitmine Slows ETH Purchases to 26,659 Tokens After Tom Lee Advises Caution
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) bought 26,659 Ethereum (ETH) tokens last week at a cost of $63 million, about a quarter of its recent average weekly buying pace, after board member Tom Lee advised the company to slow its accumulation. Total ETH holdings reached 5.21 million tokens as of May 11, representing more than 4.31% of the entire circulating ETH supply.
Total cryptocurrency and cash holdings stand at $13.4 billion.
What Changed This Week
Bitmine board member Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, told the company to moderate its weekly purchase pace after ETH buying had averaged roughly $250 million per week through earlier months in 2026, according to a CoinDesk report published May 11. The $63 million spent last week represents the lightest single-week buying since Bitmine began its aggressive accumulation strategy.
Lee joined the Bitmine board in early 2026 and has served as a visible advocate for the corporate Ethereum treasury model.
Background
Bitmine is a publicly listed cryptocurrency mining and digital asset holding company that adopted an Ethereum treasury strategy in late 2025, mirroring the playbook MicroStrategy (MSTR) used for Bitcoin (BTC). The company bought more than 1 million ETH in 2026 alone before this week’s slowdown.
At 4.31% of total supply, Bitmine holds a larger percentage of a major cryptocurrency’s outstanding tokens than any other single corporate treasury currently disclosed. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, meaning validators lock up ETH to secure the network and earn yield.
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Outlook
Lee’s instruction to ease the buying pace raises questions about Bitmine’s ceiling for ETH concentration.
Holding more than 4% of a single asset’s supply creates liquidity risk if the company ever needs to reduce its position. Investors will watch whether the weekly figure rebounds in subsequent weeks or whether the $63 million pace reflects a deliberate reset to a lower run rate as management weighs market impact against treasury growth targets.
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