Tom Lee Says BitMine May Slow Ethereum Buys After Amassing Nearly $12 Billion of ETH

In brief

• Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies may start slowing its ETH purchases.
• Of the potential slowdown, the firm's chairman Tom Lee said there are "other things to be doing in crypto right now."
• Shares in the firm (BMNR) dropped nearly 4% on Thursday, but have gained 9% in the last month of trading.

Publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies has accumulated more than 4% of the circulating ETH supply in less than a year since it began purchasing the second-largest crypto asset by market cap.

But Chairman Tom Lee said Thursday that BitMine may start to slow the pace of its purchases as the firm approaches its previously stated goal of acquiring 5% of the total ETH supply—a quest it has dubbed “the alchemy of 5%.” (Disclaimer: Lee is an investor in Dastan, parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

“We thought it could take five years, but we’ve done it at a quick pace,” said Lee, speaking of his firm’s rapid ETH accumulation during a keynote speech at the Consensus crypto conference in Miami on Thursday.

But the firm, which has recently been purchasing more than 100,000 ETH per week—or around $230 million worth—might start taking its foot of the gas after it has gathered more than 5.18 million ETH, or $11.9 billion worth. 

“I do think we’re going to slow down our pace of buying. I’m not sure we want to get to 5% too quickly,” he said. “If we continue at our current buying pace of 100,000 ETH a week, we’re going to be there in like six weeks,” he said of the firm’s goal. 

“We’re deciding, perhaps we want to accumulate at a somewhat slower pace, because there’s other things to be doing in crypto right now,” he said. 

While he didn’t provide specifics about what other crypto initiatives that BitMine could be focused on, Lee pointed to his firm’s own diversified activities as positives. The firm recently launched its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN) Ethereum staking network, and has invested in YouTuber MrBeast’s Beast Industries and Eightco, a publicly traded Worldcoin treasury and AI firm.

“In our view, the risk reward is very good for BitMine because we’ve got a lot of bets laid out there,” said Lee. “Etheruem, staking, a lot of moonshots, and of course the stock,” he said.  

Shares in the firm (BMNR), which Lee forecasted could reach as high as $5,000 if ETH soars to a price of $250,000, trended down 4% on Thursday, changing hands around $22.01 at the close of the trading day. While shares have jumped around 9% in the last month of trading, they remain 86% off their 52-week high of $161.