Miami – Bitmine (BMNR), the largest Ethereum treasury company, may slow the pace of its ether (ETH) accumulation as the company gets closer to reaching its accumulation goal, President Tom Lee said Thursday at Consensus 2026 in Miami.
The company, which holds more than 5.1 million ETH worth around $11.9 billion at current prices, originally expected it would take five years to accumulate 5% of the ETH supply, Lee said. Instead, the company owned 4.29% as of this week, less than a year after launching its strategy.
“At our current buying pace of 100,000 ETH per week, we will be there [at 5%] in about six weeks,” Lee said during a keynote presentation. “I think we’re deciding that maybe we want to accumulate at a slightly slower pace.”
The comments mark a change in tone for Bitmine, which remains one of the few major digital asset treasures still actively buying cryptocurrencies while many rivals paused accumulation during the market slowdown. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin and another consistent buyer of cryptocurrencies in recent months, indicated this week that it might sell bitcoin to cover dividend obligations, at the suggestion of CEO Michael Saylor.
Lee said Bitmine remains profitable by generating income and cash, reducing pressure to liquidate cryptocurrency holdings during volatile markets. About 85% of Bitmine’s ETH holdings are staked, generating annualized staking revenue exceeding $300 million, or approximately $1 million per day.
The company is also evaluating other uses of capital, including a recently announced $4 billion share buyback program and further expansion of MAVAN, its institutional staking platform launched in March. According to Lee, the service is currently staking around $14 billion in digital assets, including ETH, Solana (SOL), and Canton (CC).
Beyond Ethereum, Lee highlighted Bitmine’s investments tied to artificial intelligence and consumer platforms, including Eightco Holdings (ORBS) and MrBeast’s Beast Industries. He described Eightco as one of the few publicly traded companies that offers indirect exposure to OpenAI and Sam Altman’s World project.
Throughout his keynote, Lee reiterated his view that Ethereum will benefit from two major trends: the tokenization of financial assets and the rise of artificial intelligence systems that rely on public blockchains for payments and verification.
Read more: Bitcoin ending May above $76,000 would confirm a new bull market, says Tom Lee
