The announcement was made by company Chairman Tom Lee during a high-profile keynote address at the Token2049 conference held in Singapore on Wednesday. According to Lee, the firm is rapidly approaching this self-imposed threshold after successfully accumulating roughly 6 million Ether, which currently equates to approximately 4.9% of the entire token supply. To hit its ultimate target, the company requires a remaining balance of only about 100,000 additional ETH.
Emphasizing the firmness of the decision, Lee told the audience that the limit is absolute. That represents a hard cap, he noted, reiterating that the enterprise has no intention of accumulating past the 5% mark or ever owning more than 5% of the total Ethereum supply.
This definitive stance marks a notable shift from previous commentary. Earlier this year, Lee had left open the possibility of pushing past the 5% threshold depending on how the broader adoption of the Ethereum network evolved. During an interview with Bankless in August, he suggested that the company might revisit the prospect of expanding its holdings further out in 2027. However, the latest statements from Singapore confirm that Bitmine is slamming the brakes on its buying spree much sooner than some market observers may have anticipated.
Bitmine says it is “done stacking” Ether
Reflecting on the timeline of their acquisitions, Lee pointed out that the vast majority of Bitmine’s substantial Ether treasury was built during a prolonged crypto bear market. By taking advantage of depressed asset prices, the firm was able to quietly establish a dominant position while market sentiment remained broadly pessimistic.
The company did a significant portion of its heavy buying during the depths of the bear market, Lee explained, asserting that these continuous purchases acted as a structural cushion that effectively protected the downside for ETH. With that chapter closed, the chairman declared that the company is officially finished stacking tokens in front of what he anticipates will be a massive structural move for the asset.
Lee explicitly tied the introduction of the 5% hard cap to Bitmine’s broader corporate capital strategy. By permanently halting its accumulation phase, the firm removes any ongoing necessity to aggressively raise external capital for the sole purpose of feeding its treasury purchases.
The strategic implications of this move are significant for public market investors, according to the leadership team. Explaining the financial rationale, Lee posed a rhetorical question to the audience, suggesting that capping holdings at 5% positions the company to outperform ETH on the way up because stakeholders will no longer need to worry about continuous capital dilution. With the buying finished, the capital pressures associated with asset accumulation evaporate.
The journey to building this colossal cryptocurrency treasury has involved sophisticated maneuvers within traditional capital markets. In June, Bitmine made waves across the financial sector by launching a $300 million perpetual preferred stock offering to fund its operations and asset strategies. Momentum continued into the summer, and by early August, the corporation had successfully repurchased 16.1 million common shares under the umbrella of a massive $4 billion buyback program designed to return value to shareholders.
Even though direct open-market purchases of Ether are coming to a close, Bitmine’s overall digital asset exposure will continue to interact with dynamic network mechanisms, particularly staking. The firm commands a multi-billion-dollar crypto treasury that generates substantial predictable yields through network participation. Previous statements from Lee indicated that the company could potentially sell off portions of the ETH rewards earned natively through staking precisely to ensure that its overall share of the circulating supply does not creep above the strict 5% ceiling.
As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve alongside shifting regulatory frameworks and institutional adoption cycles, Bitmine’s transition from an aggressive accumulator to a capped, yield-generating corporate treasury represents a major milestone in the intersection of public equities and blockchain infrastructure. With its treasury strategy now firmly defined and the finish line for accumulation nearly crossed, the company looks toward its next phase of maturity within the digital economy.
