Miami — Bitmine (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, may slow the pace of its ether (ETH) accumulation as the company moves closer to its accumulation goal, its president Tom Lee said Thursday at Consensus 2026 in Miami.
The company, which holds more than 5.1 million ETH, worth about $11.9 billion at current prices, initially predicted it would take five years to accumulate 5% of the ETH supply, Lee said. Instead, the company held 4.29% this week, less than a year after launching its strategy.
“At our current purchasing rate of 100,000 ETH per week, we will get there [at 5%] in about six weeks,” Lee said during a keynote presentation. “I think maybe we’re deciding we want to accumulate at a little bit of a slower pace.”
The comments mark a change in tone for Bitmine, which has remained one of the few major digital asset treasures still actively buying cryptocurrencies while many rivals have suspended accumulation during the market downturn. Strategy (MSTR), the largest holder of corporate bitcoin and another regular buyer of crypto in recent months, indicated this week that it may sell bitcoin to cover its dividend obligations, per the suggestion of Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.
Lee said Bitmine remains profitable through staking revenue and liquidity generation, reducing pressure to liquidate crypto holdings during times of market volatility. Approximately 85% of Bitmine’s ETH holdings are staked, generating annualized staking revenue in excess of $300 million, or approximately $1 million per day.
The company is also evaluating other uses of capital, including a recently announced $4 billion stock repurchase program and further expansion of MAVAN, its institutional staking platform launched in March. The service currently stakes around $14 billion in digital assets, including ETH, Solana (SOL), and Canton (CC), according to Lee.
Beyond Ethereum, Lee highlighted Bitmine’s investments related to AI and consumer platforms, including Eightco Holdings (ORBS) and MrBeast’s Beast Industries. He described Eightco as one of the few publicly traded companies with indirect exposure to OpenAI and Sam Altman’s Project World.
Throughout his speech, Lee reiterated his view that Ethereum stands to benefit from two major trends: the tokenization of financial assets and the rise of AI systems leveraging public blockchains for payments and verification.
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