Key highlights:
- Bitmine has increased its ETH holdings to 5.90 million tokens after adding 53,501 over the last seven days
- Bitmine is 98% away from its goal of controlling 5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply
- Tom Lee is eyeing an ETH price rally in the coming weeks after a strong ETH performance in Q3
Ethereum treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has come within touching distance of its ‘Alchemy of 5%’ target after purchasing 53,501 ETH over the last week. Meanwhile, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee is tipping Ethereum for a strong end to 2026 after the asset surged over 20% in August, citing rising adoption among retail and institutional investors.
Bitmine buys 53,501 ETH as 5% target comes within reach
According to a press release, Bitmine added 53,501 ETH to its balance sheet over the last week, extending its accumulation streak to 65 weeks. The latest acquisition brings Bitmine’s total ETH holdings to 5.90 million tokens valued at $14.4 billion, making it the largest corporate ETH holder.
“Over the past week, we acquired 53,501 ETH,” said Lee in a statement. “Bitmine has bought ETH for each of the past 65 weeks (every week since the inception of the ETH Treasury on June 30, 2025).
Last week, Bitmine announced it added 32,447 ETH to its stash, eyeing the target of holding 5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. The latest purchase brings Bitmine closer to the milestone, with the company currently owning 4.9% of the total ETH coin supply of 120 million.
Bitmine reached the milestone 15 months after it pivoted to an Ethereum Treasury model. However, it remains unclear if Bitmine will continue its aggressive 65-week buying streak after reaching its ‘Alchemy of 5%’ target.
Bitmine has put its large holdings to work, staking 5,067,309 ETH worth 12.7 billion. The company confirmed that annualized staking revenues are tipped to generate $335 million.
Source: Bitmine
At the moment, the company is in a strong financial position to continue its accumulation spree. Bitmine holds a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and an $81 million stake in Eightco Holdings. Furthermore, Bitmine holds 211 Bitcoin (BTC) on its balance sheet, with total cash and marketable securities topping $540 million.
Tom Lee eyes an ETH price boom
Alongside the purchase announcement, Bitmine chairman Tom Lee predicted higher ETH prices in the coming weeks. He hinged his prediction on ETH becoming the best-performing macro asset in Q3 2026, surpassing BTC and Solana (SOL) by a country mile.
Source: Bitmine
“As we enter the final month of Q3 2026, ETH is the best-performing macro asset, outperforming the S&P 500 by 5,430bp through last Friday. “In fact, the top 3 performing assets since June 30th are ETH, BTC, and SOL.”
Furthermore, Lee pointed to multiple catalysts for higher prices, citing the upcoming CLARITY Act vote in mid-September. He added that South Korean retail investors are rotating away from AI stocks into crypto, setting the foundation for the bottoming of the four-year cycles.
“This sets the stage for what we expect to be sizable institutional participation in buying crypto in the final months of 2026, especially given the tailwinds of tokenization and Agentic-AI,” added Lee.
Lee also tipped the ETH/BTC ratio to increase in the next market cycle, pointing to rising Wall Street tokenization and agentic AI interacting with the Ethereum network. At press time, the Ethereum price is trading at $2,439 after surging by 32% over the 30 days.
