Could Ethereum lose top buyer as Bitmine nears 5% target?

Ethereum could soon join Bitcoin in losing its biggest and most consistent buyer as Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NASDAQ: BMNR) inched closer to its goal of controlling 5% of all the ETH in circulation after the firm touched 4.8% in its latest disclosure. 

Bitmine has already started to temper the pace of its accumulation, extending its 58-week buying streak by adding only 7,391 ETH (about $14.2 million) last week. Coincidentally, that was its smallest weekly buy in 2026, down from over 100,000 ETH weekly purchases earlier in the year. 

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor’s Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has stopped buying Bitcoin altogether since June, at least until it reaches its own stated goal of pushing its STRC preferred stock to its $100 par value. 

The question now is whether Ethereum could face a future where weeks turn into months without Tom Lee’s Bitmine buying any ETH at all.

Why is Bitmine buying less Ethereum? 

Tom Lee, the co-founder of Fundstrat who runs the treasury strategy, already intimated in May at the Consensus conference in Miami that the firm would throttle its Ethereum purchases. Lee added at the time that the firm did not want to hit its 5% target too quickly. 

As of June, Bitmine’s weekly ETH purchases were down by more than 75%. 

Bitmine has been buying its own BMNR stock instead. The firm has bought back 19.1 million shares since July. Last week alone, it bought 3 million shares for around $50 million to $58 million.

Strategy has also paused buying Bitcoin to buy back shares

The top buyers of Bitcoin and Ethereum are coincidentally prioritizing buying back their own shares at the moment. 

Strategy used all the $108.6 million it raised from selling Bitcoins last week to buy back its STRC preferred shares, as Cryptopolitan reported. The week before, it sold 1,638 BTC for about $104.7 million. 

However, they split in their rationale. Michael Saylor’s firm is defending its balance sheet, while Bitmine is relatively more secure in its position.

What happens to Ether if Bitmine stops buying ETH?

Arkham Intelligence, whose data pegs Bitmine at 96% of the way to its 5% target, laid out three paths. The firm could push past 5% and keep buying, since Lee is a committed bull who views current prices as a discount. It could taper, which on-chain data suggests is already happening. Or it could stop entirely once the target is met.

That last scenario is the one Ether holders should watch. If the market’s largest corporate Ether buyer leaves the demand side, Arkham noted, it could weigh on short-term bullish sentiment. Ether traded near $1,903 as of this Cryptopolitan report, well below levels where much of the treasury sector bought in.

One cushion softens the comparison. Unlike Strategy, Bitmine stakes most of its ETH, more than 5 million tokens, through its MAVAN validator network, generating projected annualized staking income of about $257 million at a 2.63% yield. 

Even without new purchases, that footprint means Bitmine’s stack can keep growing on network rewards alone. A buyer that stops buying is not the same as a seller.