Bitmine share buybacks resume as ether hoard nears 5% of supply
Tom Lee's Bitmine bought back 2.04 million of its own shares last week, its first repurchases since August, while slowing ether purchases to 10,452 ETH as it closes in on owning 5% of the token supply.
The biggest corporate ether holder is spending more on its own stock than on the token. Bitmine share buybacks restarted last week after a pause of about 10 weeks, the company said on Monday, while its weekly ether purchase shrank as the firm approaches its goal of owning 5% of all ETH.
What happened
Bitmine Immersion Technologies repurchased 2.04 million shares at an average of $22.48; CoinDesk put the outlay at about $45.9 million. It was the first buyback since Aug. 17, when Bitmine ended a five-week run of purchases totaling about 21 million shares. So far in 2026 it has bought back 22.9 million shares at an average of $17.48, or $399.6 million in total, which Bitmine calls the largest common equity buyback by any crypto treasury company.
The firm also added 10,452 ETH, down from 12,535 ETH the previous week, bringing holdings to 6,051,933 ETH as of Oct. 25. That equals 4.95% of the 122.2 million ETH supply, leaving Bitmine roughly 58,000 ETH short of its 5% target, according to CoinDesk. Total holdings including cash, 215 bitcoin and stakes in other companies came to about $15 billion, the company said.
Why it matters
Chairman Tom Lee framed the recent drop as a buying chance. "ETH has fallen 13% from its recent peak while US semiconductors ($SOXX) is down 20% in that same timeframe," he said, arguing crypto pulled back less than AI stocks. Bitmine says it repurchases stock when management judges the shares undervalued, a signal that management sees its own stock as cheap.
That is the core logic of Bitmine share buybacks. When a treasury company trades near or below the value of its holdings, buying back stock raises ether per share more cheaply than buying ether. Strategy has been using a similar playbook with preferred stock, as we noted in our coverage of Strategy's bitcoin purchases. Earlier this month we tracked Bitmine's weekly ETH accumulation.
Staking is the other income stream. Bitmine has staked 5,227,037 ETH, about 86% of its holdings, and estimates annualized staking revenue of about $318 million at current yields, according to its release. It prices its ETH at $2,356 per token for these figures. Bitmine also reported about $514 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and a $76 million stake in Eightco Holdings, which it describes as moonshots.
What's next
With fewer than 60,000 ETH left to reach 5%, the split between Bitmine share buybacks and token purchases is likely to keep shifting toward the stock if the discount persists. Investors will watch whether the company keeps buying ether every week, a streak it says has run since June 30, 2025. Holdings and buyback figures are in Bitmine's press release.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.