BitMine Immersion Technologies will cap its Ether holdings at 5% of the cryptocurrency's total supply, Chairman Tom Lee announced during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday. The company holds roughly 6 million ETH, or about 4.9% of supply, and needs approximately 100,000 ETH more to reach the threshold.

Once it gets there, the buying stops — permanently, according to Lee.

"That's a hard cap. We're not gonna be accumulating past 5%," Lee said. "We're not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum."

Why does the cap matter for BitMine's capital strategy?

The 5% ceiling marks a reversal from Lee's earlier posture. In an August interview with Bankless, he left open the possibility of accumulating beyond 5%, depending on Ethereum adoption, and said the company might revisit that question in 2027. The Token2049 keynote converts what was a target into a firm ceiling.

Lee tied the cap directly to BitMine's funding model. Halting accumulation removes the need to return to capital markets for fresh Ether purchases, a mechanism the company has relied on to build its treasury.

"So if we have a 5% hard cap, that means we're gonna outperform ETH on the way up, right?" Lee said. "'Cause you don't have to worry about us trying to raise capital. We're done."

The statement carries operational weight. BitMine has funded its Ether purchases through equity markets:

• In June, the company launched a $300 million perpetual preferred stock offering.
• By early August, it had repurchased 16.1 million common shares under a $4 billion buyback program.
• The company has projected $334 million in annual staking revenue from a $15.8 billion crypto treasury.

A binding accumulation ceiling signals to shareholders that future dilution-driven Ether purchases are off the table, while the existing buyback program continues to reduce share count.

How did BitMine build the position?

Lee said the company accumulated most of its roughly 6 million ETH during what he described as a crypto bear market, building the position while prices were depressed.

"We did all this buying in a bear market," Lee said. "We protected the downside for ETH because we were buying. But now, we're done stacking in front of a 25X move."

The remarks position BitMine's accumulation as a source of sustained demand that has now ended. For Ether market structure, the removal of one of the largest single-entity buyers — one that at times absorbed significant portions of circulating supply — reduces a demand channel that had been a defining feature of the token's recent trading environment.

What happens to staking rewards?

Even with purchases halted, BitMine's holdings could still drift above the 5% line through staking. Lee previously said the company could sell ETH earned via staking to keep its share of supply from exceeding the cap — meaning the treasury would remain a periodic seller, not an accumulator, once the threshold is reached.

That dynamic creates a mechanical ceiling on the position: staking revenue grows the stack, and selective sales trim it back. The company's projected $334 million in annual staking revenue gives a sense of the scale at which those flows would operate.

With roughly 100,000 ETH left to acquire before hitting the cap, BitMine's accumulation phase is effectively in its final tranche. Once complete, attention shifts to whether the company holds to the 2027 review date Lee floated in August — or whether the hard cap, as stated on stage in Singapore, closes the question entirely.