Bitmine’s ETH Buys Slow to 7,430 Tokens as $86M Buyback Eats Into Cash

Bitmine (BMNR) bought just 7,430 ETH last week, worth about $14 million at ether’s current price of $1,879 — one of the smallest weekly additions since the firm launched its Ethereum treasury strategy in June 2025. The slowdown came as Bitmine redirected capital toward repurchasing roughly 5.5 million of its own shares at an average price of $15.62 under a previously authorized $4 billion buyback program, spending an estimated $86 million on the move.

The modest ETH purchase lifted Bitmine’s total holdings to 5.78 million ETH, equal to roughly 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, according to a Monday company update. That puts the firm — already the largest corporate Ethereum treasury holder — within striking distance of its stated goal of controlling 5% of all ETH in circulation.

A sharp deceleration from May’s pace

The 7,430 ETH added last week is a fraction of what Bitmine had been accumulating for most of the year. The company bought more than 111,000 ETH in a single week back in May and had regularly picked up tens of thousands of tokens weekly through the first half of 2026. Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee attributed the drop-off directly to the share buyback, saying the reduced pace of ETH buys “reflects that Bitmine repurchased 5.5 million common shares.” He noted the firm has still purchased ether every single week since adopting the treasury strategy just over a year ago.

BMNR shares were up 2.4% in pre-market trading following the update, suggesting investors read the buyback — rather than the slower ETH accumulation — as the more market-moving signal for now.

The balance sheet behind the slowdown

Bitmine’s total holdings stood at $11.5 billion as of Sunday. Beyond its ether stash, the company held 207 bitcoin and $385 million in cash and marketable securities. Of its ETH position, 4.92 million tokens are staked, generating a projected annualized staking revenue of about $247 million — a yield stream that continues regardless of how aggressively the firm buys new ether.

Why the numbers matter for ETH holders

Bitmine’s approach to Ethereum functions similarly to how Strategy has treated bitcoin: turning a public company into a leveraged proxy for the underlying asset while using equity market tools — like buybacks — to manage the stock’s valuation relative to net asset value. A pause in ETH buying to fund a $86 million stock repurchase is a capital-allocation choice, not necessarily a shift in conviction, since Lee emphasized the firm never skipped a week of ether purchases.

For traders watching supply dynamics, the key figure to track is Bitmine’s 4.8% share of circulating ETH edging toward the 5% threshold the firm has set as a milestone. Continued accumulation at that scale — even at a slower cadence — keeps a large, semi-permanent chunk of ETH supply off exchanges and staked, a factor market participants weigh when assessing available liquid float against price moves.

Sources

• theblock.co
• coindesk.com