Bitmine, the Ethereum treasury company run by Tom Lee, just bought another $213.57 million worth of Ether. The purchase lifts its total holdings to roughly $9.32 billion — about 4.59% of the entire circulating supply. That makes Bitmine one of the single biggest known whales in the ecosystem, and it’s still not done: the firm needs another $819.86 million at current prices to hit the 5% threshold.
The size of the position
Four-point-five-nine percent of all Ether that exists. That’s not a treasury allocation; it’s a concentration. Bitmine accumulated this stake over months, but this week’s buy is the largest single addition the company has disclosed since its strategy went public. The purchase comes as Ethereum trades well below its 2025 highs and sits under every major weekly moving average.
Ethereum’s price backdrop
The timing isn’t great for most holders. ETH is hovering around $1,670, down from above $4,800 last year. It broke below the $1,800–$1,900 zone that held through much of 2025 and into early 2026. A failed recovery in March topped out near $2,350, forming a lower high that reinforced the bearish trend. Volume spiked on the way down — a sign of aggressive distribution, not accumulation. Bulls are now trying to defend the $1,500–$1,600 area. That’s the same region where Bitmine appears to be buying.
What it takes to hit 5%
Bitmine already controls nearly one out of every twenty Ether tokens. To own one in twenty exactly, the company needs to spend roughly $820 million more at current prices. That’s a big check for a single entity to write into a market that’s already thin on the bid side. If Bitmine keeps buying at this pace, it will either pull the price off the floor — or find itself pushing liquidity deeper into the order book.
The next quarterly report, expected in July, will show whether the firm continued loading up through June. If it did, the percentage will tick up again. If it slowed, the market will want to know why.
