Tom Lee's Bitmine slows its ether buying to spend $86 million buying back its own stock

Bitmine Immersion Technologies, led by well-known analyst and investor Tom Lee and one of the largest corporate holders of ether in the world, sharply slowed its ETH buying pace over the past week — shifting its attention to buying back its own stock instead.

How Much the Ether Buying Slowed

Over the past several months, Bitmine had been making large, regular ether purchases — $92 million in late June, a 2026 record of $214 million during an early-June price dip, and another $74 million in early July. But over the past week, the company acquired just 7,430 ETH — an order of magnitude below its usual pace. As of mid-July, Bitmine holds roughly 5.77 million ETH tokens — about 4.8% of ether's entire circulating supply.

Where the Money Went Instead

Instead of continuing its aggressive ether accumulation, Bitmine repurchased roughly 5.5 million of its own shares over the week at an average price of about $15.62 — totaling roughly $86 million. The buyback was carried out under a previously authorized $4 billion repurchase program, which the company announced expanding back in April when it listed on the NYSE.

We view the purchase as accretive to shareholder value. — Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine

Does This Mean Bitmine Is Losing Faith in Ether

There's no direct sign of a strategy shift: Bitmine remains one of the most publicly committed backers of the "crypto spring" thesis — Tom Lee's call for a new leg up in crypto — and the company has repeatedly shown a willingness to "buy the dip," including making its single biggest 2026 ether purchase during the early-June price drop. The more likely explanation for this week's slowdown is a simple reallocation of available capital between two uses in a given week, rather than a retreat from its long-term ETH bet.

Why It's Still Worth Watching

Bitmine remains one of the largest institutional buyers of ether, which makes its purchase pace an important gauge of institutional demand for ETH. Even a temporary slowdown alongside a parallel stock buyback signals that the company is actively balancing between accumulating its underlying asset and supporting its own market capitalization — not a reversal in its outlook on ether itself.

This material is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.