Bitmine Accumulates 4.8% of Ethereum Supply; Tom Lee Targets 5%

Bitmine, the crypto treasury company led by Tom Lee, bought 9,926 ETH last week, bringing its total Ethereum holdings to 5.815 million tokens, according to CoinDesk. That stake represents 4.8% of Ethereum's total supply and is valued at approximately $11 billion at the time of reporting, when ETH traded near $1,904.

Bitmine launched in June 2025 with a stated goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum's supply, per CoinDesk. The company has maintained a steady weekly buying cadence over the past 14 months. Bitmine stock (ticker BMNR) traded more than 2% higher on the day of reporting, while ETH itself was up about 1.6% over the prior 24 hours.

Lee, in an accompanying statement reported by CoinDesk, observed that the ETH/BTC ratio has broken above a years-long downward trend. He attributes this shift to investors pricing in growing demand for Ethereum from tokenization and AI-agent applications. Lee also cited expectations that easing financial conditions will serve as a tailwind for crypto broadly.

Beyond ETH accumulation, Bitmine bought an additional 1.7 million shares of its own stock last week and now owns 20.8 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion buyback program, per CoinDesk. The dual deployment of capital into both Ethereum and equity buybacks suggests confidence in long-term value, though sources do not disclose the company's total treasury reserves, weighted average cost basis for ETH holdings, or cash flow metrics.

No independent market data is available to corroborate Lee's thesis that tokenization and AI-agent adoption are driving material demand for Ethereum. The bear case rests on several unknowns: Bitmine's profitability and cash-flow status; whether the $11 billion valuation masks unrealized losses if purchase costs averaged above current price; the company's total capital reserves and allocation strategy; and the sustainability of weekly acquisition at current scale given any regulatory or market constraints on accumulating a single asset's supply.