Bitmine only needs to spend another $482 million to reach its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, but management has indicated that eventual purchases will come more slowly.
On July 20th, the company revealed that it held 5,777,468 ETH after adding 7,430 tokens in the previous week. The latest purchase cost around $14 million, making it one of BitMine’s smallest weekly allocations to ETH.
Based on BitMine’s estimated circulation of 120.7 million ETH, a 5% position would be equivalent to 6.035 million tokens, 257,532 ETH short of the company’s goal.
The remaining ETH would be approximately $483.9 million at the $1,879 price BitMine used to value its holdings. The dollars needed will fluctuate depending on the market price of ETH, but the number of tokens needed can also change as the supply of Ethereum expands or contracts.
BMNR buybacks take priority over ETH purchases
The slowdown in ETH purchases was due to Bitmine spending almost six times as much to buy its own shares.
According to a press release, Bitmine repurchased approximately 5.5 million shares of BMNR common stock during this week at an average price of $15.6156, for a transaction value of approximately $85.9 million. Combined with the Ether purchase, the company has deployed nearly $100 million across the two assets.
The buybacks were conducted under a previously authorized $4 billion program. Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee said the reduction in ETH purchases reflects management’s decision to allocate capital to Bitmine shares that they believe will be beneficial to shareholders.
Nevertheless, the company has maintained a record of weekly ETH purchases since initiating the strategy on June 30, 2025.
The pace dropped sharply from the previous week when BitMine purchased 27,801 ETH. Its latest addition was downsized by approximately 73% and followed purchases totaling approximately 70,000 ETH during the first two-week reporting period in July.
Still, the changes are consistent with the guidance Mr. Lee laid out in his July chairman’s message. He said BitMine intends to gradually approach the 5% level and does not intend to accelerate beyond that concentration threshold.
Lee cited changes occurring around the Ethereum Foundation and said the company wants to avoid building a position significantly above 5% of the network’s supply.
Therefore, goals are becoming both milestones and ceilings. BitMine has completed approximately 95.7% of the required accumulation as measured in tokens and needs to acquire less than a quarter of Ethereum’s estimated supply.
BitMine’s share number is rapidly increasing
The stock buyback decision also follows a period in which BitMine issued a large amount of stock to fund ETH purchases.
According to the company’s latest quarterly report, the number of outstanding common shares increased from 232.4 million shares at the end of August 2025 to more than 579.7 million shares as of May 31. This means the number of shares has more than doubled in the past year to fund aggressive ETH purchases.
The 5.5 million share buyback only reverses a small portion of that expansion. Still, it shows that management is currently weighing the value of adding Ether against the market price of Bitmine stock.
Bitmine announced that the combined value of cryptocurrencies, cash, marketable securities, and strategic investments was $11.5 billion as of July 19th.
In addition to holding ETH, the company held 207 BTC, $385 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million investment in Beast Industries, and a $58 million stake in Eightco Holdings.
The company remains the largest public company holder of ETH. The company’s digital asset vault is second only to Strategy, which holds 843,775 BTC worth about $55 billion.
Staking brings revenue but does not protect against loss
BitMine seeks to derive recurring income from the ETH it accumulates, rather than relying entirely on rising token prices.
The company revealed that it had staked 4,917,189 ETH, which is approximately 85% of its total ETH holdings. BitMine projected annual staking revenue of approximately $247 million, with a reported seven-day yield of 2.67%.
After ETH is fully deployed through the company’s MAVAN staking platform and external staking partners, annual rewards could reach approximately $290 million, it said. These estimates remain sensitive to changes in Ethereum price, validator performance, and Ethereum staking yields.
Staking is already BitMine’s main source of operating revenue. For the quarter ended May 31, staking and verification generated $45.7 million, representing 98% of the company’s total revenue of $46.5 million.
However, staking income did not translate into quarterly profits. BitMine recorded a loss of $92.1 million on derivative contracts, resulting in a net loss of $83.6 million.
These results demonstrate two aspects of the Ethereum strategy that bring BitMine closer to its ownership goal.
Although the Treasury generates revenue, its financial performance is still subject to the company’s decisions regarding token prices, staking yields, derivative positions, and the issuance or repurchase of shares.
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