BitMine Says Its Ethereum Buying Will Stop at a 5% Hard Cap

BitMine’s long Ethereum buying campaign now has a firm finish line.

Chairman Tom Lee said the company will stop accumulating ETH once its treasury reaches 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. BitMine is already near 4.9%, leaving roughly 100,000 ETH to buy before the self-imposed ceiling is reached.

That turns the company’s “Alchemy of 5%” slogan from an accumulation target into an actual limit. The distinction matters because BitMine has become one of the most consistent large buyers in the Ethereum market.

Decrypt reports that Lee made the commitment during a Token2049 appearance in Singapore. His message was direct: 5% is a hard cap, not a milestone the company plans to blow through later.

Lee said BitMine needs approximately 100,000 more ETH to reach that line, putting the company only several weeks away if its recent acquisition pace continues. The remaining purchase would complete a campaign that has made BitMine the largest public corporate holder of Ethereum.

The report also places the decision in the context of BitMine’s capital strategy. Lee’s argument is that ending purchases removes the need to keep raising money for accumulation, allowing the existing ETH treasury and the company’s operating businesses to drive shareholder returns.

That is a meaningful change from the open-ended possibility Lee discussed earlier, when he left room to reconsider the 5% target as Ethereum adoption grew. The new statement closes that door: the company says it will finish the target and stop buying rather than turn 5% into the next starting point.

Coin Bureau shared the key portion of Lee’s onstage remarks, including his estimate that BitMine needs about another 100,000 ETH to finish the program:

🚨BREAKING: Tom Lee says BitMine will "STOP" buying ETH at 5% "hard cap."

"We only need to get another 100,000 ETH to get to 5%," Lee said on stage at Token2049.

Lee called 5% BitMine’s “hard cap,” saying it optimizes shareholder value. pic.twitter.com/mm0WYnv4Z0

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) October 7, 2026

The size of the position is hard to overstate. Five percent of a major proof-of-stake network’s supply concentrated in one public company creates both influence and risk, even when the stated goal is long-term ownership rather than active trading.

BitMine’s own October chairman’s message says the company is close to 6 million ETH and about 100,000 ETH short of its cap. The company presents that scale as a bridge between Ethereum and Wall Street, with staking and institutional infrastructure becoming more important after the buying phase ends.

Stopping at 5% also changes the financing story for BitMine shareholders. A treasury company that is still racing to acquire tokens needs a steady source of capital.

Once the target is complete, management can argue that investors no longer have to price in repeated fundraising just to keep the buying machine running.

Lee framed that as a benefit rather than a retreat. His case is that BitMine can retain the upside of a huge ETH position without continuously issuing securities or raising fresh capital to purchase more.

The latest holdings snapshot circulating after the Token2049 remarks put the company at 6,016,414 ETH, or approximately 4.9% of supply:

BREAKING: Tom Lee says BitMine $BMNR will stop accumulating $ETH once it reaches 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.

BitMine currently holds 6,016,414 ETH, equal to roughly 4.9% of total supply. pic.twitter.com/3sc3b3gWeo

— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) October 7, 2026

The end of open-market purchases will not necessarily freeze the treasury at an exact token count. Ethereum staking produces rewards, which can increase holdings even when a company buys nothing.

Cointelegraph notes that Lee has previously discussed selling staking rewards if needed to keep BitMine’s ownership share below 5%. That creates an important operational question: whether the cap applies only to purchases or to the company’s total percentage of supply after rewards are included.

The company will also be reaching the line as Ethereum’s circulating supply changes. A percentage-based ceiling moves with the denominator, so maintaining it precisely will require ongoing treasury management rather than one final purchase and a permanent stop.

For the broader ETH market, the immediate issue is demand. BitMine’s accumulation has removed a substantial amount of available supply and provided a recurring institutional bid.

When that bid ends, Ethereum will lose one unusually predictable buyer.

That does not automatically mean ETH must fall. Demand can come from exchange-traded funds, other treasury companies, staking participants, tokenization projects, and ordinary investors.

But the market will have to absorb the absence of BitMine’s weekly purchases once the final roughly 100,000 ETH is secured.

There is another side to the cap: credibility. Investors have heard plenty of crypto targets described as flexible ambitions.

Drawing a bright line at 5% gives shareholders, Ethereum users, and regulators a concrete boundary they can measure.

If BitMine honors it, the company will finish one of the largest corporate crypto accumulation campaigns ever attempted without allowing the target to turn into an unlimited mandate.

The next few weekly disclosures should show how quickly BitMine closes the remaining gap. After that, the story shifts from how much ETH it can buy to what it can earn, build, and return with the extraordinary position it already owns.

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