BitMine bought Ether every week for more than 15 months, building a treasury of about 6.02 million ETH. Chairman Tom Lee now says the company is close to its target of holding 5% of the network's supply and will stop accumulating beyond it. A major recurring buyer may leave the spot market, while its large staked position continues to earn rewards. Neither event, by itself, establishes where Ether's price will go. BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of October 4, approximately 4.9% of the 122.1 million supply it used in its company update. The company bought 15,112 ETH in the preceding week and says it has purchased tokens every week since June 30, 2025. Lee said roughly 100,000 ETH remained to reach a 5% target and described it as a ceiling for further accumulation. BitMine reported 5,067,309 ETH staked, about 84% of its holdings, with an annualized reward projection that can change with network yield. Ether fund flows, other corporate buyers, staking withdrawals and ordinary spot demand will determine whether the end of BitMine's purchases is visible in market liquidity. The numbers come from BitMine's October 5 holdings disclosure filed with the SEC. The company valued its ETH at roughly $16.4 billion using a $2,726 reference price and listed $643 million of cash and marketable securities. Its reported holdings are a stock measured at one time. The 15,112 ETH addition is a flow over the previous week. A stock large enough to move governance discussions can coexist with a much smaller marginal weekly bid. Lee's October chairman's message said BitMine needed approximately 100,000 more ETH and would be finished accumulating around the 5% mark. The target uses a moving denominator because Ethereum supply changes through validator issuance and transaction fee burn. A figure of 5% is therefore not necessarily one immutable coin count. The company has not filed a notice saying its purchases have already stopped. https://twitter.com/cryptodotnews/status/2107804017065934869 How large has the recurring bid been? Fifteen thousand one hundred twelve ETH bought in the latest reported week would represent about $41 million at BitMine's $2,726 valuation reference. The firm reports it has bought every week since launching the treasury strategy in June 2025. The size has varied; using one week as a permanent average would be an unsupported forecast. The public update establishes a recent pace and the existence of a recurring buyer, not the exact execution price of each coin or where the trades occurred. Accumulating 6 million ETH over 15 months required substantial capital and market sourcing. Some coins could have been acquired through over the counter desks rather than visible exchange order books. An OTC seller can hedge or replace inventory on an exchange later, so the absence of a large public buy order does not mean the accumulation had no price effect. The full chain of trades is not published. A claim that BitMine alone held Ether above a particular support level would need evidence isolating its orders from other buyers and sellers. BitMine's purchases can absorb supply even if the company is not responsible for the entire market trend. A recurring bid removes coins from holders willing to sell at the prevailing price. When the bid ends, sellers must find other counterparties or accept a different price, all else equal. Markets rarely hold everything else equal. ETF creations, other treasury purchases, exchange flows, staking activity, derivatives hedging and macro conditions can change at the same time. The earlier holdings coverage recorded the weekly addition and staking figure. The more useful question for the coming weeks is whether the company reports a taper, a final purchase and then zero new ETH in later updates. A statement of intention on a conference stage can change with corporate policy, funding and the target denominator. Subsequent filings can confirm what it actually did. Why use a percentage of supply? BitMine calls the strategy its Alchemy of 5%, portraying a large minority stake in ETH as a basis for a listed treasury business and institutional staking platform. A percentage target scales with the supply rather than with the dollar price. If Ether rises, the value of a fixed coin balance increases while the percentage of supply can remain nearly stable. If net issuance adds coins to the network, a company holding its position unchanged can see its share drift lower. Fee burn or staking rewards may work in the opposite direction. Ethereum does not have Bitcoin's fixed 21 million cap. Ethereum's supply explanation describes validator issuance and fee burning as the principal opposing forces. A treasury aiming for an exact fraction must decide how to treat supply revisions, staking rewards and smaller operational balances. Lee's reported ceiling is a corporate policy, not a protocol limit on the number of ETH one owner may control. Five percent of the 122.1 million supply cited by BitMine is approximately 6.105 million ETH. The difference from its October 4 holding is about 88,600 ETH, while Lee rounded the remaining requirement to roughly 100,000. A later supply observation can shift the threshold. The arithmetic should be labeled approximate rather than used to predict a precise last purchase date. At a 15,112 ETH weekly pace, an 88,600 to 100,000 ETH gap would last roughly six to seven weeks. The calculation is an illustration, not guidance from BitMine: purchase size has varied, supply can change, the firm can alter the schedule, and a spike in price may change how it deploys cash. The available disclosures do not establish an October or November date on which the bid must end. Staking keeps the treasury active after buying stops The company reported 5,067,309 ETH staked as of October 4, or roughly 84% of its holdings. It projected about $363 million in annualized staking revenue at its recent seven day yield of 2.63% and approximately $431 million if more holdings were staked at that rate. Those projections depend on the ETH price, yield and amount staked; they are not a guaranteed cash coupon. Validator performance, network conditions and changes in staked supply can alter rewards. The Ethereum withdrawal documentation describes different reward handling for legacy and compounding validator credentials. Some rewards are periodically swept to an execution address, while other balances can compound within validator limits. A treasury reporting staking income may receive additional ETH without going to a spot exchange. The 5% policy will eventually need to account for coins earned through operations even after open market buying ends. https://twitter.com/cryptodotnews/status/2099679595452637602 Holding a large stake does not mean every coin is permanently locked or removed from potential sale. Validators can exit, subject to queues, and rewards may become liquid under the applicable credential. BitMine may retain, restake, distribute or sell rewards according to policy and cash needs. Lee's statement about stopping accumulation does not disclose a standing sale program. The difference between no new purchases and net selling is large, and the market should not treat the two as synonymous. Staking also creates a business separate from a passive treasury. BitMine has developed its MAVAN validator platform for its own holdings and outside clients. Fees or rewards from operating infrastructure can provide recurring income, though capital expenditures, custody and operational risks remain. The company could shift attention from buying coins to running validators and other ventures without losing its existing exposure to ETH price moves. Could other buyers take over? U.S. spot Ether funds are one visible channel. Farside's daily ETH table records creations and redemptions in dollars across issuers; an October 6 row showed a $201.9 million aggregate outflow. Daily flows can reverse and dollar value must be converted at the prices relevant to each