BitMine sets hard 5% cap on ETH buying, says it is done raising capital

• BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of October 4, about 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply.
• Lee called 5% a hard cap and said BitMine is done raising capital to buy ETH.
• After the cap, BitMine plans to keep staking and sell staking rewards to stay at 5%.

Lee made the comments during his morning session on the OKX Main Stage, where he argued that the crypto market is moving from a recovery into a full bull market. Asked what happens when BitMine reaches its target, he was unambiguous: “That’s a hard cap,” he said, according to Cointelegraph. BitMine furnished the presentation deck, video and transcript of the talk to investors the same day.

BitMine is 99% of the way to its target

The company’s October 5 holdings update put its treasury at 6,016,414 ETH, worth about $16.4 billion at $2,726 per ETH, with total crypto, cash and securities of $17.4 billion. Of that ETH, 5,067,309 tokens are staked through MAVAN, BitMine’s validator network. The release described the company as 99% of the way to its 5% goal.

Lee said on stage that BitMine needs only about another 100,000 ETH to get there. BitMine began its ETH treasury on June 30, 2025 and has bought every week since; CCS reported on October 5 that its latest weekly purchase was its smallest since August.

What changes after 5%

Once the cap is reached, BitMine says it will stop buying ETH and stop raising capital for that purpose. It will keep its staked position running, and sell the staking rewards it earns so the treasury does not drift above 5% of supply. Coverage of the plan puts projected annual staking revenue at around $363 million.

BitMine has not said whether it will use buybacks or change MAVAN’s role once purchases end, and the company gave no date for hitting the cap.

Markets read it as the loss of a steady buyer

CoinDesk reported that ether fell about 5% over 24 hours to its weakest level since September 20, and that BitMine shares (BMNR) dropped 5.72%. The selling also lined up with a broader bond market selloff, so not all of the move can be pinned on Lee’s comments.

The CCS read. For more than a year, BitMine’s weekly purchases have been one of the most reliable sources of spot demand for ETH, and a big part of the treasury-company story that pulled public-market money into Ethereum. A hard cap turns BitMine from a buyer into a holder that sells its staking yield, which is a cleaner business model but a weaker bid. The question for ETH now is whether ETF flows and other treasuries can absorb the supply that BitMine was quietly taking off the market every week.

Watch BitMine’s next weekly holdings releases to see how quickly it closes the last 100,000 ETH, and whether it details how it will sell staking rewards. More from the event: the TOKEN2049 Singapore talks worth your seat and TOKEN2049’s first US edition in New York.