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At this week's pace Bitmine is six to eight weeks from holding 5% of ether supply, where it says buying stops

Bitmine bought another 12,532 ETH last week, lifting its holdings to 6,028,946 ETH, or 4.9% of supply. Chairman Tom Lee says purchases end at 5%, 76,000 to 100,000 ETH away, so the position is close to its final size.

The Investor · Invest desk

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What Bitmine has left to buy before its 5% stop ETH held, ETH bought over the past week, and more ETH needed to reach the 5% target: by supply math, and as Tom Lee estimates it.

Key figures: Bitmine holds 6,028,946 ETH, 4.9% of Ethereum's supply. It bought 12,532 ETH over the past week. It needs about 76,054 more ETH to reach 5% of supply; Tom Lee says it needs about 100,000 more ETH.

What Bitmine has left to buy before its 5% stop
FigureValueNoteClaim
Held, 4.9% of supply6,028,946 ETH2
Bought over the past week12,532 ETH1
To 5% of supply, about76,054 more ETH18
Lee says needed, about100,000 more ETH7

What happened

  • Of that holding, 5,067,309 ETH is staked, about 84% of the treasury and $12.9 billion at Bitmine's reference price.
  • The $16.2 billion total also counts 214 BTC, $612 million in cash and marketable securities, and stakes in Beast Industries ($180 million) and Eightco ($85 million).
  • Lee says the company has bought ETH every week since its treasury strategy began on June 30, 2025.
  • BMNR shares fell 12.8% over the last five trading sessions but are up more than 55% over three months, according to news.bitcoin.com.

Why it matters

  • What it limits constraint The buying that built the position is already thinning: this week's purchase is about 14% of the roughly 90,000 ETH weekly average, if the whole holding was bought since the strategy began.
  • Who's exposed exposure Each $100 move in ether changes the value of the holding by about $603 million, roughly 1.8 times a full year of the $336 million staking income.
  • What doesn't add up contradiction Lee calls BMNR 90% correlated with ETH, yet his $22,000 ether case puts the stock at 11.5 to 19.2 times its $26 level against an 8.65-fold move in the coin.

At the 122.1 million ETH supply the company cites [3], 5% is 6.105 million tokens [17], and the 6,028,946 ETH Bitmine holds [2] leaves 76,054 to buy [18]. This week's purchase was 12,532 ETH [1], worth $31.9 million [6] against $41 million the week before [5], so the gap closes in a little over six weeks if the pace holds [19]. Chairman Tom Lee's own distance is longer. He said Bitmine needs "about 100,000 more ETH, and that's about it" [7], and at the same pace that is eight weeks [20].

Funding does not set that limit. At the company's $2,544 price [4] the 76,054 ETH costs about $193.5 million [21], or 32% of the $612 million in cash and marketable securities it reports [22]. (The ether already held is worth about $15.34 billion at that price [4].) The stop is therefore a decision, and Lee has said what he expects from it: "So if we're done stacking, but ETH goes up a lot, you can imagine that we'll outperform Ethereum," he said [10].

Staking is where the position can still change. The 5,067,309 staked ETH [11] equals 4.15% of the supply [23], and 961,637 ETH is not yet staked [24]. The company puts staking income at about $336 million a year now [12] and projects $400 million once everything is staked through MAVAN and its staking partners, at a 2.61% seven-day yield [13]. That is a $64 million gap [25]. MAVAN has also been opened to institutional investors, custodians and other participants [14], so Bitmine's own balance may understate the stake running through its validators. The sources do not give the network's total staked ETH, so Bitmine's share of all staked ether cannot be worked out from them.

There are three ways this runs differently. The target is the company's own number and can be raised. Any growth in the 122.1 million supply lifts the 6.105 million threshold with it. Or the weekly pace keeps shrinking, and the target takes longer than eight weeks. We think the buying ends at the target, as Lee has said [8], and that the open question after that is staking, where 961,637 ETH remain to be added. We would be wrong if purchases run past 6.105 million ETH or Lee names a new percentage.

What to watch

  • Whether the staked count moves from 5,067,309 ETH toward the full holding in the weekly updates, and the $336 million income estimate toward $400 million.
  • Any disclosure of total ETH staked on the network or of third-party stake run through MAVAN, which would let Bitmine's share of staking be calculated.
  • What Lee's next monthly Chairman's message says about the $612 million in cash and marketable securities once ether purchases end.

Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives70
Confidence72

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 5%
Operator
Operator 16%
Investor
Investor 79%
Why these scores

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    Bitmine bought 12,532 ETH over the past week, the company said Monday.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  2. [2]

    Bitmine's holdings stand at 6,028,946 ETH, which is 4.9% of Ethereum's supply.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  3. [3]

    The total Ethereum token supply used by the company is 122.1 million ETH.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  4. [4]

    Bitmine valued its 6,028,946 ETH at approximately $15.34 billion, using an ether price of $2,544.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  5. [5]

    Bitmine bought $41 million more ETH the week before.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  6. [6]

    The 12,532 ETH bought over the past week was worth about $31.9 million at the $2,544 price the company used.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  7. [7]

    In his monthly Chairman's message last week, Tom Lee said Bitmine needs "about 100,000 more ETH, and that's about it."

    Reported Supported Source: Decrypt, citing Tom Lee's monthly Chairman's messageView cited source
  8. [8]

    Lee has said Bitmine's Ethereum buying will stop once it reaches its 5% target.

    Reported Supported Source: Decrypt, citing Tom LeeView cited source
  9. [9]

    Bitmine's latest holdings update is dated October 12, 2026.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  10. [10]

    Lee said in the video: "So if we're done stacking, but ETH goes up a lot, you can imagine that we'll outperform Ethereum."

    Reported Supported Source: Tom Lee, Chairman's message videoView cited source
  11. [11]

    Bitmine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, about 84% of its treasury, representing $12.9 billion at its reference price.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  12. [12]

    Bitmine estimates its current staking rewards at approximately $336 million annually.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  13. [13]

    Bitmine said that at scale, when its ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners, the projected ETH staking reward would be $400 million on an annualized basis, using a 2.61% 7-day BMNR yield.

    Reported Supported Source: Bitmine, as reported by news.bitcoin.comView cited source
  14. [14]

    MAVAN, launched earlier this year, has expanded beyond Bitmine's internal treasury operations to serve institutional investors, custodians and other participants seeking Ethereum staking infrastructure.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  15. [15]

    Bitmine's $16.2 billion total crypto, cash and investment holdings include 214 BTC, $612 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and an $85 million stake in Eightco Holdings, in addition to its ETH.

    Reported SupportedView cited source
  16. [16]

    Lee says Bitmine has bought ETH every week since the inception of its ETH Treasury Strategy on June 30, 2025.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom Lee, as reported by news.bitcoin.comView cited source
  17. [17]

    5% of the 122.1 million ETH supply is 6.105 million ETH.

    Derived Supported
  18. [18]

    Bitmine needs about 76,054 more ETH to reach 5% of supply.

    Derived Supported
  19. [19]

    At 12,532 ETH a week, 76,054 ETH takes about 6.1 weeks.

    Derived Supported
  20. [20]

    At 12,532 ETH a week, Lee's 100,000 ETH takes about 8 weeks.

    Derived Supported
  21. [21]

    76,054 ETH at $2,544 costs about $193.5 million.

    Derived Supported
  22. [22]

    $193.5 million is about 32% of Bitmine's $612 million in cash and marketable securities.

    Derived Supported
  23. [23]

    Bitmine's 5,067,309 staked ETH is about 4.15% of the 122.1 million supply.

    Derived Supported
  24. [24]

    About 961,637 ETH of Bitmine's holding is not staked.

    Derived Supported
  25. [25]

    The projected fully staked reward exceeds the current estimate by about $64 million a year.

    Derived Supported
  26. [26]

    BMNR shares lost 12.8% over the last five trading sessions and are up more than 55% over the last three months.

    Reported Supported Source: news.bitcoin.comView cited source
  27. [27]

    A $100 move in the ether price changes the value of Bitmine's ETH holding by about $602.9 million.

    Derived Supported
  28. [28]

    A $100 ether move is about 1.8 times Bitmine's estimated annual staking rewards.

    Derived Supported
  29. [29]

    If the whole holding was bought since June 30, 2025, Bitmine averaged about 90,000 ETH a week over 67 weeks.

    Derived Supported
  30. [30]

    This week's 12,532 ETH is about 14% of that weekly average.

    Derived Supported
  31. [31]

    Lee said Bitmine shares, then around $26, are 90% correlated with ETH, and projected that ETH at $22,000 would put the stock at $300 to $500.

    Reported Insufficient Source: Tom Lee, as reported by DecryptView cited source
  32. [32]

    ETH at $22,000 is about 8.65 times the $2,544 price.

    Derived Insufficient
  33. [33]

    A stock price of $300 to $500 from about $26 is a gain of 11.5 to 19.2 times.

    Derived Insufficient

Sources

5 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. coindesk.com

    1 article · October 12, 2026

    Tom Lee sees $2 trillion wealth transfer fueling crypto demand as Bitmine buys more ether
  2. cryptobriefing.com

    1 article · October 12, 2026

    Bitmine adds 12,532 ETH as Tom Lee predicts record crypto bull cycle
  3. cryptopolitan.com

    1 article · October 12, 2026

    Bitmine's 12,532 ETH buy puts it 99% of the way to owning 5% of ether
  4. decrypt.co

    1 article · October 12, 2026

    Bitmine Adds $32M in Ethereum as Tom Lee Says Firm Is Nearly 'Done Stacking'
  5. news.bitcoin.com

    1 article · October 12, 2026

    Bitmine Surpasses 6M ETH, Closing In on 5% of Ethereum Supply

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