BitMine's weekly Ethereum purchases have collapsed to a fraction of their usual size, even as the company's chairman declares that ETH's long decline against Bitcoin is finally over. Tom Lee, who chairs the bitcoin and ether treasury company, said the ETH/BTC ratio has broken above a multi-year downtrend, sitting at 0.02994 and rising. But the company's own books show it is buying far less ETH than it used to.
Why Lee is bullish
Lee attributes the ETH/BTC breakout to the market finally pricing in two demand drivers: tokenization and agentic AI. Both need Ethereum's blockspace, and Lee argues the market is starting to recognize that. It's a thesis that, if right, would justify holding more of the asset — not less.
A slower buying pace
BitMine added just 9,926 ETH last week. That's a far cry from the 59,998 weekly average it maintained across 43 weeks of disclosed purchases. The past five weeks have been the only stretch since late October where weekly buys came in below 11,000 ETH. At the peak, in December, the company was adding 138,452 ETH in a single week.
The slowdown isn't a liquidity problem. BitMine's total crypto and cash position stands at $11.4 billion, including 210 BTC. The company simply isn't putting that cash into Ethereum the way it used to.
Buybacks instead
Where's the money going? Back to shareholders. BitMine repurchased 1.7 million shares last week, and 20.8 million since July 1. Lee called that the largest buyback executed by any crypto digital asset treasury — a notable shift for a company whose entire business model was built on accumulating ETH.
The math to 5%
The company currently holds 5,815,164 ETH, or about 4.8% of the circulating supply, worth roughly $11 billion at current prices near $1,902. To reach a round 5%, BitMine would need roughly 220,000 more tokens. At its earlier purchase pace, that would have taken under four weeks. At last week's pace, it would take more than five months.
The open question is whether the slower accumulation is a tactical pause or a real pivot. The share buyback program suggests the latter — a treasury that has decided its own stock is the better buy right now. Either way, the days of BitMine vacuuming up 60,000 ETH a week appear to be over, at least for the moment.
