MIAMI – Bitmine (BMNR), the largest Ethereum finance company, may slow down the pace of its Ethereum (ETH) accumulation as the company inches closer to its accumulation target, Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine (BMNR), said Thursday at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami.
Lee said the company holds more than 5.1 million ETH, worth about $11.9 billion at current prices, and initially expected it would take five years to accumulate 5% of the ETH supply. Instead, as of this week, the company’s stake stood at 4.29%, less than a year after launching the strategy.
“At our current buying rate of 100,000 ETH per week, we will reach that goal [at 5%] “In about six weeks,” Lee said during a keynote speech. “I think we’re deciding that maybe we want to accumulate at a slightly slower pace.”
The comments mark a shift in tone for Bitmine, which remains one of the few large digital asset libraries still actively buying cryptocurrencies, while many rivals have paused their accumulation during the market downturn. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate Bitcoin holder and another consistent buyer of the cryptocurrency over the past few months, may sell Bitcoin this week to cover its dividend obligations, following a suggestion from executive chairman Michael Saylor.
Lee said Bitmine remains profitable through staking revenue and cash generation, easing the pressure of liquidating crypto assets during market volatility. About 85% of Bitmine’s ETH holdings are pledged, with annual staking revenue exceeding $300 million, or about $1 million per day.
The company is also evaluating other uses of capital, including a recently announced $4 billion stock buyback program and further expansion of MAVAN, its institutional staking platform launched in March. Lee said the service currently has about $14 billion in digital assets pledged, including ETH, Solana (SOL) and Canton (CC).
In addition to Ethereum, Lee also highlighted Bitmine’s investments related to artificial intelligence and consumer platforms, including Evenco Holdings (ORBS) and MrBeast’s Beast Industries. He described Evenco as one of the few public companies with indirect exposure to OpenAI and Sam Altman’s World project.
Throughout the keynote, Lee reiterated his view that Ethereum will benefit from two major trends: the tokenization of financial assets and the rise of artificial intelligence systems that rely on public blockchains for payments and verification.
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