Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSEAMERICAN: BMNR) now holds approximately 4.9% of all ether (CRYPTO: ETH) in circulation, putting it weeks away from a landmark threshold.
In its latest update published October 5, 2026, BitMine reported owning 6,016,414 ether, valued at approximately $14.7 billion based on the October 8 price.
That holding has grown by roughly 15,100 coins in a single week, underscoring the pace at which the company is accumulating the asset.
With Ethereum’s total circulating supply sitting at approximately 122.1 million coins, a 5% stake equates to roughly 6.1 million ether, meaning BitMine needs about 88,600 more coins to cross the line.
At its current weekly purchase rate, the company could reach that goal in approximately six weeks.
Despite BitMine’s aggressive accumulation, ether’s price has not responded favorably, trading around $2,448 as of October 8, down nearly 9% over the prior week.
That figure sits roughly 50% below ether’s peak of $4,946 reached in August 2025, illustrating that sustained institutional buying has not been sufficient to reverse broader market selling pressure.
A significant portion of BitMine’s holdings are locked away through staking, with approximately 5,067,309 ether, around 84% of total holdings, committed to securing the Ethereum network in exchange for rewards.
The company expects to earn approximately $363 million annually in staking rewards, but those coins cannot be liquidated quickly, as BitMine would need to navigate the network’s exit queue to retrieve them.
Currently, around 800,000 ether are already waiting in that exit queue, and BitMine’s staked position alone is more than six times the size of the entire current line.
For context, Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), reported holding 843,775 Bitcoin in July, representing roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s total supply, making BitMine’s Ethereum stake proportionally larger.
That level of concentration raises legitimate concerns, as a single entity controlling such a large share of any network’s circulating supply introduces meaningful price risk on both the buying and selling side.
Traders tracking BitMine’s position understand that any decision to sell would take weeks to execute given the exit queue constraints, creating an unusual dynamic in how the market prices that overhang.
Critically, BitMine has not disclosed its average purchase price or outlined any strategy for what comes after reaching the 5% target, leaving outside investors without a clear picture of the company’s long-term intentions.
If BitMine continues purchasing around 15,000 ether per week after crossing the 5% mark, that would suggest sustained demand beyond the original goal, while a halt in buying could remove one of the market’s most consistent sources of purchase activity.
A sustained rise in ether’s price without BitMine’s direct involvement would be the clearest signal that organic demand is broadening beyond this single institutional player.
