BlockBeats News, May 8th — Tom Lee, Chairman of the Ethereum Treasury company BitMine, stated at the Consensus 2026 conference that as the largest Ethereum Treasury company, BitMine may slow down its ETH purchasing pace as it nears its accumulation target. The company currently holds over 5.1 million ETH, valued at approximately $11.9 billion at the current price. Lee mentioned that the company originally expected to take 5 years to accumulate 5% of the total ETH supply. However, as of this week, the company holds 4.29%, achieving this goal in less than a year. Tom Lee said: "At our current weekly purchase rate of 100,000 ETH, we will reach our 5% target in about six weeks. I think we are considering perhaps wanting to accumulate at a slightly slower pace."

This statement marks a shift in tone for BitMine. BitMine is one of the few large digital asset treasury companies that continue to actively buy crypto assets in a market downturn, while many competitors have paused accumulation. The largest corporate Bitcoin holder, MicroStrategy (MSTR), which has been accumulating crypto assets for the past few months, indicated this week that it may sell Bitcoin to fulfill dividend obligations, following the suggestion of its CEO Michael Saylor.

Tom Lee mentioned that BitMine maintains profitability through staking rewards and cash generation, mitigating the pressure to liquidate its crypto holdings in a volatile market. Around 85% of BitMine's ETH holdings are staked, generating over $300 million in annual staking rewards, equivalent to approximately $1 million per day. The company is also evaluating other capital use cases, including a recently announced $4 billion stock buyback plan and further expansion of its institutional staking platform MAVAN launched in March.

In addition to Ethereum, Tom Lee also emphasized BitMine's investments in the AI and consumer platform sectors, including Eightco Holdings (ORBS) and MrBeast's Beast Industries. He described Eightco as one of the few publicly listed companies that provide indirect exposure to OpenAI and Sam Altman's World project. Throughout his keynote speech, Tom Lee reiterated his view that Ethereum will benefit from two major trends: the tokenization of financial assets and an increasing number of AI systems relying on public chains for payments and validation.