Bitmain Freezes Ether Purchases, Targets 5% ETH Supply By December
Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has slowed the pace of its Ether purchases after previously increasing its buying volume and buying more than 100,000 tokens in the past three weeks.
Bitcoin said it bought 26,659 ETH last week, down more than 100,000 tokens in a week, but still on target to buy 5% of the token's 120.7 million circulating supply by the end of the year.
“We have initially decided to delay our planned weekly acquisition rate of >100,000 in order to reach our ‘5% Alchemy' target by the end of 2026. Our previous pace of >100k weekly purchases will put us at 5% by mid-July.”
Bitcoin is the largest Ether treasury company and one of the most frequent buyers of the token, a business model adopted from Michael Saylor's Bitcoin Treasury Strategy.
Bitmine estimates it will reach its goal of holding 5% of Ether supply by the end of 2026. Source: Bitmine
Bitmin plans to save the entire Ether stash
Bitmine's total stake is more than 4.7 million ether, and the company estimates its annual stock award will be about $352 million once it's vested. Blockchain explorer beaconcha.in tracked more than 38 million Ether holdings as of Sunday.
Lee's goal is for bitumen to eventually own the entire stockpile.
“We intend to hold and distribute our ETH holdings, which means that our ETH holdings are essentially reducing the available ETH supply and removing 4.3% of the ETH supply as of June 30, 2025.
Bitumen has more than 4.7 million ether stored. Source: Bitmin
Ether hit an all-time high of $4,946 in August 2025, but has fallen along with the rest of the crypto market since late last year. It's still down 52% from its peak and has been hovering between $2,274 and $2,411 over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko.
Crypto Spring is in full swing
Lee doubled down on his so-called “crypto-spring launch and further evidence that Ether's price has grown relative to software stocks.”
“Crypto Spring has begun and we want to emphasize the importance of holding ETH as a source of diversification and potential drivers of this coming ‘crypto bull' cycle,” he said.
“If ETH closes above $2,100 by the end of May 2026, this will be the third consecutive monthly gain – unprecedented in a crypto bear market. Therefore, the close above $2,100 confirms the arrival of ‘crypto spring.'
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