Bitmine Immersion Technologies will stop buying ether once its holdings reach 5% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply, Chairman Tom Lee said during TOKEN2049 in Singapore. The Nasdaq-listed company currently holds about 6 million ETH, or roughly 4.9% of supply, leaving it needing around 100,000 more tokens to reach that limit.

Lee said the cap followed discussions with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, describing the move as a way to avoid excessive concentration. He also used the conference appearance to argue that digital assets entered a new bull market cycle in August.

A self-imposed ceiling on ETH accumulation

According to Lee, Bitmine’s planned stopping point is firm. He said the company would end its ether accumulation after crossing the 5% threshold, framing the decision as a direct response to concerns about network centralization.

Bitmine’s existing position already places it close to that mark. With around 6 million ETH on its balance sheet, the company is only a small distance from the cap relative to the size of its overall treasury.

Why Lee says the market has turned

Lee said the broader crypto market began a fresh bull run in August. He tied that view partly to technical signals, noting that bitcoin moved above its 200-day moving average on Aug. 19 and that ether posted a golden cross on the same date.

He also said the cycle’s definitive bottom came on Oct. 5, citing quantitative models developed by market-timing analyst Tom DeMark. Those comments reflect Lee’s market outlook rather than a confirmed industry consensus.

Treasury strategy and corporate balance sheets

The Bitmine chairman argued that halting new treasury accumulation at 5% still leaves room for upside while reducing the need for further equity dilution for existing shareholders. The announcement comes as corporate digital asset treasuries are estimated to hold about 7% of circulating ether overall.

Bitmine launched its treasury program 15 months ago. Lee said the company currently earns about $1 million per day in protocol yield through its Maven staking operation. He also pointed to capital management steps including a $350 million share repurchase program that began on July 14 and the issuance of perpetual preferred shares intended to lower the company’s cost of capital.

What Lee sees driving this cycle

Lee said the current market phase differs from earlier retail-led rallies because of four structural factors: institutional tokenization of real-world assets, an expected $100 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer over the next decade, supply being absorbed by treasury-buying companies, and the use of blockchain-based rails for payments by AI agents.

He added that long periods of price consolidation and tokenization efforts by large financial institutions such as BlackRock and JPMorgan could, in his view, support ether over the long term. Lee said those trends could eventually push ETH toward $22,000, though that remains his projection rather than a stated target from the company.

What happens next

The next clear milestone for Bitmine is the acquisition of roughly 100,000 more ETH, which would bring the company to the 5% ceiling Lee described on stage. If the firm follows the plan he outlined, additional purchases would stop at that point.

Beyond that, attention is likely to shift to whether Bitmine maintains its staking-driven yield and how much ether remains concentrated in corporate treasuries more broadly, given Lee’s emphasis on limiting centralization risk.

Source: bitpinas.com