Bitmine cuts weekly ETH purchases by 75% as stock slides and Ethereum dips below $2,000

Bitmine (BMNR) has once again purchased ETH this week, acquiring 26,497 ETH for about $53 million, a massive 75% cut from its last weekly purchase of 120,000 ETH. This comes amid dips in the company’s stock in addition to a drop in Ethereum’s market performance in the past week.

The approximately 75% reduction in buying pace comes as BMNR shares have fallen 38% over the past year, trading near $19.27, with a slip in Ethereum itself by almost 1.8% over the past 24 hours to roughly $1,980.

Bitmine approaches 5% target

Bitmine’s total Ether holdings now sit at about 5.42 million tokens, or 4.49% of the entire network’s circulating supply of about 120.7 million ETH, the company said. That puts the firm at about 90% of the way toward its well publicized goal of controlling 5% of ETH’s total supply.

Chairman Tom Lee, who is also Fundstrat’s co-founder, has mentioned repeatedly that the deceleration in ETH purchases are intentional. At Consensus 2026 in Miami last month, Lee said Bitmine planned to reduce its rate of accumulation as it closed in on the 5% threshold, as previously reported by Cryptopolitan.

“In our view, ETH prices are not reflecting the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals,” Lee said in Monday’s statement. “But then again, this is not surprising given we are in the early stages of crypto spring.”

The company has purchased more than one million ETH since January, making it the largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm by holdings.

Bitmine’s portfolio and staking plans

Bitmine reported total crypto and cash holdings of $11.6 billion as of May 31, holding 203 Bitcoin, $446 million in cash, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, and a $93 million position in Eightco Holdings (ORBS) beyond its total ETH holdings.

Staking has become a massive revenue stream for Bitmine, as about 4.7 million tokens of Bitmine’s 5.4 million ETH have been staked through its MAVAN platform. This makes the company the largest Ethereum staker globally. The firm estimates an annual staking revenue of $258 million currently, with projections reaching $300 million by the end of 2026.

Markets have been negative

This ETH purchase slowdown has also come during a rough stretch for the general crypto markets. Bitcoin dropped by about 2.5% and briefly fell below $72,000 after Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) disclosed its first BTC sale since 2022, selling 32 coins for $2.5 million to cover dividend payments.

Retail traders on Stocktwits also expressed frustration regarding BMNR’s stock decline, comparing its poor performance to Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR), whose stock was approaching a record high as Hyperliquid’s native token topped $74 and entered the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Bitmine needs to purchase roughly another 61,000 ETH to hit the 5% total ETH supply ownership mark. At last week’s buying pace, that would take the company about two weeks. This means the firm is right on the cusp of its 2026 goal, and it is yet to be seen how this would positively or negatively impact the BMNR stock price.