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1. Bitmine reaches 4.95% of Ether supply
Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced on October 26 that it bought another 10,452 ether (ETH), worth roughly $24 million, lifting its holdings to 6,051,933 ETH, or 4.95% of the token's supply. In the same week the NYSE-listed company repurchased 2.04 million of its own shares, a step it describes as the largest equity buyback any crypto treasury company has carried out. Among ethereum treasury companies, Bitmine is the biggest.
The weekly update shows a company at a turning point. Its long campaign to accumulate ether is within a rounding error of its stated goal, while its attention is shifting toward its own stock. The purchase of 10,452 ETH is small next to the totals the firm has built up, and the headline in the announcement was the repurchase rather than the token buy.
Bitmine's holdings were valued at about $14.3 billion at a reference price of $2,356 per ETH. Against an Ethereum supply of 122.2 million tokens, that stake works out to 4.95%, leaving the company 99% of the way toward its target of owning 5% of the network.
For readers tracking the sector, the figures illustrate how concentrated ether ownership among public companies has become. A single listed firm now controls close to one twentieth of every token in circulation, a share that gives it meaningful weight in discussions about who holds the network's economic stake.
2. How big is the share buyback?
Over the past week Bitmine bought back 2.04 million of its shares at an average price of $22.48, according to the company's Monday announcement. That brings the total repurchased during 2026 to 22.9 million shares, at a cost of about $399.6 million. The company says no other crypto treasury business has run an equity buyback of that scale.
Chairman Tom Lee presented the repurchases as a value decision. The company intends to buy back shares when management considers them undervalued, which treats the stock the way an investor would treat any other asset that appears to trade below its worth.
The arithmetic of the program offers a clue to the trend. Spreading $399.6 million across 22.9 million shares implies a year-to-date average price of about $17.45, below the $22.48 paid this week. The most recent purchases therefore came at higher prices than the average for the year, which is consistent with a rising share price during the period.
A buyback of this size also has a signaling role. Companies generally repurchase shares when they believe the market price understates the value of the business, and a program that totals nearly $400 million in a year communicates strong conviction from management. Skeptics, however, may ask whether the same capital would have been better kept in reserve, since cash spent on shares is no longer available to cushion a downturn.
3. What are ethereum treasury companies?
Ethereum treasury companies are publicly traded businesses that hold ether on their balance sheets as a core asset and give stock market investors an indirect way to own it. They typically raise money by selling shares or other securities, then use the proceeds to buy tokens. Their performance depends on both the price of ether and the way the market values their shares relative to the tokens they hold.
That relationship explains why a buyback matters. If a company's shares trade at a discount to the value of its holdings and other assets, repurchasing them can increase each remaining shareholder's claim on the underlying assets. Management's emphasis on buying shares when they look undervalued reflects that logic.
Bitmine ranks as the largest Ethereum treasury company in the world and the second-largest crypto treasury company overall. Only Michael Saylor's Strategy holds more, and Strategy's holdings are in bitcoin.
The model has drawn attention because it packages a volatile token inside a familiar stock ticker, which allows investors who cannot or prefer not to hold tokens directly to gain exposure through a brokerage account. The trade-off is that shareholders take on company-specific risks, including management decisions, financing choices and the possibility that shares trade away from the value of the assets.
4. The Alchemy of 5% and what comes after it
Bitmine has described its objective as the Alchemy of 5%, a goal of controlling 5% of all ether in existence. With 4.95% already in hand, the company is close to finishing the job. Lee has said that Bitmine is nearly done accumulating and will stop buying once it crosses the 5% threshold.
That statement gives context to the weekly shift. Once the target is met, cash that would have gone into tokens becomes available for other purposes, and a share repurchase program is a ready use of funds. The company's announcement fits a pattern in which the end of the buying campaign and the start of the buyback overlap.
The remaining gap is small. At the current supply, 5% of 122.2 million tokens is about 6.11 million ETH, and Bitmine holds 6,051,933. The firm would need to add only a few tens of thousands of tokens, a gap that is roughly a handful of weekly purchases at the pace of this week's 10,452 ETH.
Whether the company can resume buying later is an open question. Lee's remark describes an intention to stop at the threshold, and the firm has not said it would never purchase more, though the stated plan points toward a company that has completed its accumulation phase.
5. Beyond ether: bitcoin, cash and other holdings
Including cash, other tokens and what the company calls moonshot investments, Bitmine's total holdings were about $15 billion as of October 25. Ether accounts for the bulk of that figure. The remainder includes 215 bitcoin, $514 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and a $76 million position in Eightco Holdings.
The cash balance is relevant to the buyback. A company that holds hundreds of millions in cash and marketable securities has more flexibility to repurchase stock than one that has put every dollar into a single token. The announcement did not specify how future repurchases will be funded.
Bitmine also stakes most of its ether. It has 5,227,037 ETH staked through its MAVAN platform, about 86% of its holdings, with projected annualized staking revenue of roughly $318 million. Staking means locking tokens to help secure the Ethereum network in exchange for rewards, and it gives the company a recurring income stream on top of any price change in the asset.
Taken together, the disclosures sketch a balance sheet that is overwhelmingly ether but not exclusively so. The additional positions are small relative to the $14.3 billion ether stake, yet they show management has used part of its capital for assets outside the main token, including holdings in two companies and a modest bitcoin position.
6. Why Tom Lee sees the dip as an opportunity
Lee framed the recent weakness in crypto as a buying opportunity rather than a warning sign. He attributed the pullback to the same risk-off forces behind a broader selloff in artificial intelligence-related stocks, rather than to a problem specific to digital assets.
To support the argument he pointed to relative moves. Ether had fallen 13% from its recent peak, he noted, while U.S. semiconductor stocks fell 20% over the same period. In his view, the comparison supports the case that a crypto bull market is underway and that the latest decline is a temporary pause driven by wider market conditions.
This is the chairman's interpretation, and it is not a forecast that the company has quantified. The figures he cited describe the size of recent declines in two asset groups; they do not by themselves show that either group will recover.
The argument also reflects how closely crypto prices have tracked technology shares during the current cycle. When investors reduce risk across growth-oriented assets, digital tokens and chip makers can fall together, which is the pattern Lee described. Whether that correlation persists will influence how the chairman's view holds up in coming weeks.
7. A parallel shift at Strategy
Bitmine's pivot was not the only one among the largest crypto treasury firms this week. Strategy paused its bitcoin purchases for the first time since mid-September and instead spent $204.9 million repurchasing its STRC preferred stock.
Taken together, the two moves show the biggest holders turning their attention to their own securities rather than adding to their token piles. One company is nearing a self-imposed ownership cap, while the other is using cash on its capital structure. Both are treating their own paper as an attractive place to deploy money.
For investors, the shift raises a question about the model itself. Treasury companies were built on the idea of continually converting capital into tokens. When purchases slow and repurchases rise, the businesses begin to look less like accumulation vehicles and more like conventional companies managing a large asset and the shares that represent it.
For regulators and analysts who follow the sector, the simultaneous pivot offers a first look at how mature treasury companies behave once their original mission is complete. The next phase will test whether they can justify a premium to shareholders without constant purchases of tokens.
8. What to watch next
The next weekly announcement will show whether Bitmine crosses the 5% line and whether it follows through on Lee's statement that buying will stop once it does. It will also show whether the repurchase pace of 2.04 million shares a week continues, accelerates or fades.
Investors will also look at how the share price responds. A buyback can support a stock that management believes is undervalued, but it cannot guarantee that the discount closes. The company's own average repurchase price of $22.48 this week gives a reference point for judging later purchases.
Finally, readers should watch the staking figures. With 86% of holdings staked, Bitmine's reported revenue will depend on the network's reward rate and the ether price, so changes in either would feed directly into the company's projected $318 million of annualized income.