Miami – Bitmine (BMNR), the largest Ethereum tax company, may slow the pace of its ether (ETH) accumulation as the firm gets closer to reaching its accumulation goal, Chairman Tom Lee said Thursday at Consensus 2026 in Miami.
The company, which has over 5.1 million ETH worth about $11.9 billion at current prices, initially expected it would take five years to accumulate 5% of the ETH supply, Lee said. Instead, the company held 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 six weeks,” Lee said during a keynote presentation. “I think we’re deciding that maybe we want to accumulate at a somewhat slower pace.”
The comments mark a shift in tone for Bitmine, which has remained one of the few major digital assets still actively buying crypto, while many rivals halted accumulation during the market downturn. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder and another consistent crypto buyer in recent months, indicated this week that it may sell bitcoin to cover dividend obligations, according to chairman Michael Saylor’s proposal.
Lee said Bitmine remains profitable through stake income and cash generation, which reduces pressure to liquidate crypto holdings during volatile markets. About 85% of Bitmine’s ETH holdings are staked, generating an annual staking revenue of over $300 million, or about $1 million a day.
The firm is also evaluating other uses of capital, including a recently announced $4 billion share buyback program and further expansion of MAVAN, its institutional investment platform launched in March. The service currently bets about $14 billion in digital assets, including ETH, Solana (SOL) and Canton (CC), according to Lee.
In addition to 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 offering indirect exposure to OpenAI and Sam Altman’s World project.
Throughout his keynote, Lee reiterated his view that Ethereum can benefit from two major trends: the tokenization of financial assets and the emergence of AI systems that rely on public blockchains for payments and verification.
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