Bitmine Chair Tom Lee has disclosed that his Ethereum treasury company purchased another $31.6 million in ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to 6.03 million tokens.
The latest acquisition represents approximately 4.9% of the total outstanding Ethereum supply, placing Bitmine within striking distance of its self-imposed 5% accumulation ceiling.
Lee made clear that the company does not intend to acquire more than 5% of the total outstanding supply, signaling that the extended buying campaign is approaching its conclusion.
“The accumulation of a majority of our 6 million ETH took place in the midst of a crypto bear market and with the Company nearing our 5% ETH accumulation target, we believe the company is attractively positioned ahead of the coming crypto bull,” Lee said in a press release.
Lee’s 5% target marks a notable shift from a position he outlined last year at Korea Blockchain Week, where he told Coinage that 10% of all outstanding Ethereum could potentially be a suitable target.
His revised thinking centers on the growth of tokenization on the Ethereum network, with new assets being tokenized providing an increasingly larger bid for blockspace and potentially reducing the need for a price-insensitive buyer like Bitmine.
Despite capping accumulation at 5%, Lee remains broadly bullish on crypto, arguing that the current macro environment could trigger what he described as the largest ever crypto bull market.
“But with tokenization coming in a very large way, and a pro-crypto regulatory backdrop, and then of course, government support at a time when AI… and a lot of applications [are] being built around crypto, I think it’s a much larger universe of people that are going to get involved,” Lee said.
Fundstrat Head of Digital Asset Strategy Sean Farrell also sees a bullish setup for crypto, though his reasoning centers on the macroeconomic environment rather than tokenization trends.
With yields rising to levels not seen in two decades, Farrell points to the U.S. Treasury and Secretary Scott Bessent growing increasingly active in efforts to push yields lower, a dynamic he views as favorable for digital assets.
“It leads to monetary debasement,” Farrell said. “And monetary debasement leads to Bitcoin outperformance.”
Meanwhile, Lee highlighted that Bitmine has outperformed Ethereum itself during the recent bear cycle, distinguishing the company’s performance from that of the largest Bitcoin treasury company, Strategy.
“In the first 9 months of 2026, ETH declined 10% while BMNR was down by 3%, or outperformance of 731bp,” Lee said, arguing the company is well-positioned heading into what he expects to be a new bull cycle.
