Bitmine bought another $169.15 million in ETH this week. Tom Lee’s firm now holds $11.53 billion in Ethereum, representing 4.04% of the total ETH supply. That ownership level puts Bitmine above every other entity tracked on Arkham Intelligence, including Coinbase.
The accumulation has been relentless: $140.74 million three weeks ago, an unmarked wallet purchase of $106.98 million flagged as a likely Bitmine transaction twenty days ago, and now another $169 million this week. The trajectory is not slowing down.
How the 4% Milestone Was Reached
Three weeks ago, Bitmine’s holdings crossed $10 billion after a single week of $140.74 million in purchases. That figure already outpaced Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin buying over the same period.
Twenty days ago, Arkham flagged an unmarked wallet purchasing $106.98 million in ETH whose buying pattern matched Bitmine’s established behavior, raising the question of whether Lee was accumulating through additional addresses. This week’s confirmed $169.15 million purchase pushed the total over the 4% threshold.
The pace across these three data points shows acceleration rather than a plateau. Each buying window has been larger than the last in terms of confirmed purchases, and the total has moved from $10 billion to $11.53 billion in under a month.
What 4% of ETH Supply Actually Means
Holding 4.04% of total ETH supply is a number without many historical comparisons in crypto. The only entities that have held comparable percentages of a major proof-of-stake asset’s supply have generally been protocol foundations, staking infrastructure providers, or exchange custody operations. Bitmine is none of those. It is a single company running a concentrated, conviction-driven accumulation strategy, and it now holds more ETH than Coinbase according to Arkham’s tracking.
The concentration has supply implications that compound over time. ETH that moves into Bitmine’s wallets is ETH that is no longer available on exchanges, and the firm has also staked a significant portion of its holdings, removing those tokens from circulation entirely. Each purchase tightens the available supply further.
The Distance to 5%
Getting from 4.04% to 5% requires approximately $2.74 billion in additional ETH purchases. At the current ETH price and Bitmine’s recent buying pace, that is not a short-term target.
A single week of $169 million in purchases would need to continue for roughly 16 consecutive weeks to close that gap, assuming price stays flat. In practice, continued buying at this scale would push the ETH price higher, making each subsequent percentage point more expensive to acquire.
That dynamic is the reason the 5% question is genuinely open rather than a straightforward extrapolation. The market is not passive to Bitmine’s buying. Each purchase absorbs supply and puts upward pressure on the price, which means the cost of the next purchase is higher than the last. Getting to 5% gets more expensive the closer Bitmine gets to it.
Final Words
Bitmine has crossed 4% of total ETH supply with $11.53 billion in holdings, surpassing Coinbase and every other entity on Arkham’s tracking. The buying has accelerated across three consecutive weeks.
The path to 5% requires $2.74 billion more and gets more expensive with every purchase. Tom Lee’s ETH strategy is the most aggressive institutional accumulation play in crypto right now, and the market is watching every wallet move that might be his.
