Bitmine Closes In on 5% of Ethereum Supply With Fresh 32,447 ETH Purchase

Bitmine is getting closer to its goal of owning 5% of all the Ethereum in the market. The company added 32,447 ETH to its treasury last week, a purchase worth $81 million at Ethereum’s current price.

The firm said in its press release on Monday that its total Ethereum holdings are now at 5,847,611 ETH, worth close to $15 billion as of August 23. Ethereum's total supply is around 120.68 million tokens, which places the 5% mark at about 6.04 million tokens. That means the company is about 187,000 ETH short of the finish line.

Bitmine's buying streak speeds up as ETH price surges

The new purchase comes during an impressive showing for the altcoin. ETH is up 31% over the past week, outpacing Bitcoin's 24% weekly gain. As of press time, the coin is bouncing between $2,470 and $2,500, adding almost 3% in the past day alone.

Bitmine's push to hit 5% of the coin’s supply has been in the works for more than a year. The company first crossed 1% last August, hit 2% in September, passed 4.66 million ETH in March 2026, and reached 5.2 million ETH in May. By July, its stash had grown to 5.79 million ETH.

Tom Lee, Bitmine's chairman, called this week's Ethereum rally unusual. He noted that a weekly gain of this size had only shown up twice before, and both times it came right before a bull run. He said the current jump looks similar to those earlier setups.

Lee also highlighted different factors behind the rally. This includes the looser financial conditions, the huge support for crypto policy in the White House, and Treasury purchases of long-dated government bonds.

Tom Lee says Bitmine will never sell ETH

The chairman said the Ethereum treasury firm has no plans to sell. Lee said in an interview with Bankless that the firm will not need to offload any ETH to cover its financial obligations. 

He explained that yearly dividend payments on the company's preferred stock, which he pegged at $30 million to $35 million, are comfortably covered by staking income. He estimated that this income will be close to $300 million a year at today's prices.

Lee said the company is "more likely trying to find ways to monetize" its Ethereum position instead of cashing out its holdings. Bitmine currently has 87% of its ETH staked, and predicts it will yield about $330 million in yearly staking revenue.

He also hinted that 5% may not be where the company stops. He said it "would make a ton of sense" to hold even more ETH if more companies begin treating it as a long-term reserve asset.

The firm intends to reassess how fast it buys Ethereum sometime in September. He also suggested Bitmine could have met its 5% goal if the crypto market structure bill had been signed into law. The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on the bill on September 15.