Following a purchase of an additional 27,562 ether last week, BitMine now possesses 5.98 million tokens valued at approximately $16.3 billion. Despite these acquisitions, the firm has not yet attained the 5% Ethereum (ETH) supply milestone it has pursued for the past 15 months.
According to Chairman Tom Lee, major investors continue to hold low allocations in cryptocurrency and are expected to increase their holdings prior to the conclusion of the year. Meanwhile, the public stock market currently values the entire company at an amount lower than the total value of the crypto assets it holds.
BitMine Buys Ether Every Week and the Finish Line Keeps Moving
BitMine characterizes its business model as a long-term crypto accumulation strategy. Having purchased ether on a weekly basis starting June 30, 2025, the firm reports it has completed 98% of its journey toward owning 5% of the entire circulating supply of ether.
Because ether features no hard supply cap and new tokens are continuously minted, the target 5% threshold steadily increases while BitMine continues its purchases.
BeInCrypto previously highlighted this trend in August, noting that BitMine’s drive for the 5% mark was trailing by roughly 251,000 tokens at the time.
The company has since acquired 136,329 ether, though it remains approximately 121,000 tokens away from the target.
Lee Bets on a Fourth Quarter Rush While the Market Marks Him Down
Lee presents a straightforward argument for sidelined investors, pointing out that ether has outperformed the S&P 500 by about 65 percentage points since late June.
“Given institutions have underweighted crypto in 2026, partially due to the outperformance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to substantially increase their exposure in the final 3 months of 2026,” he said in the company’s latest release.
The stock market has not fully reflected this optimistic perspective in its valuation. BitMine tallies its digital assets, cash, and private investments at a combined $17.1 billion, whereas the enterprise closed Friday with a market capitalization of $15.68 billion.
This valuation gap is common within the sector, as many corporate crypto treasury holders routinely trade below the net asset value of their holdings.
At the time of writing, ether changed hands near $2,734, marking a gain of over 6% over the preceding 24 hours. Lee is scheduled to deliver a keynote address in Seoul on September 30, with the final quarter of the year beginning the very next morning.