Bitmine Buys Back $45.9M of Shares While Adding 10,452 ETH
Tom Lee's Bitmine spent about $45.9 million buying back 2.04 million shares last week, nearly double its $24 million ETH add, as holdings hit 6,051,933 ETH and the firm closes in on its 5% supply goal.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) spent nearly twice as much on its own stock as on ether last week. The company bought back 2.04 million shares at an average of $22.48, about $45.9 million, while adding 10,452 ETH worth roughly $24 million.
The disclosure came Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in a company announcement via PR Newswire. Holdings now stand at 6,051,933 ETH, or 4.95% of the 122.2 million ETH supply. The weekly add shrank from 12,535 ETH the week before.
First buyback since August
This was the first repurchase since Aug. 17, ending a pause of roughly 10 weeks. That earlier run lasted five weeks and took out about 21 million shares for $350 million. The 2026 tally now sits at 22.9 million shares for about $399.6 million.
Bitmine is roughly 58,000 ETH short of its "Alchemy of 5%" goal of owning 5% of all ether. With the finish line that close, the split says the marginal dollar is drifting toward the stock.
The release puts total holdings at about $15 billion as of Oct. 25, marking ETH at $2,356. That figure includes 215 BTC, $514 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries and a $76 million position in Eightco Holdings. ETH traded around $2,490 on Monday, above that reference mark.
Lee blames risk-off, not crypto
Chairman Tom Lee tied the drawdown to the same risk-off forces behind the AI sell-off:
"ETH has fallen 13% from its recent peak while US semiconductors ($SOXX) is down 20% in that same timeframe. We believe this is further evidence that a crypto bull market is underway."
Tom Lee
Lee also called the program the largest common equity buyback by any crypto treasury company. That ranking is the company's own claim. On the rationale:
"When management believes Bitmine shares are relatively undervalued, the company intends to accretively repurchase shares, subject to market conditions and under the existing repurchase authorization,"
Tom Lee
Staking keeps ticking in the background. Bitmine has 5,227,037 ETH, about 86% of holdings, staked through MAVAN and projects roughly $318 million in annualized revenue. Staking the full stack at a 2.58% yield could lift that to $368 million.
What it means
The setup looks contradictory on paper: Bitmine is shrinking its share count while still growing its claim on ether supply. And falling less than semis is not a floor. Outperforming a 20% drawdown does not rule out further losses for ETH. Lee's read is that crypto is simply caught in a broader risk-off move.
The flow backdrop is soft. Ether ETFs lost $320M between October 12 and 16 amid a wider institutional retreat, so the biggest corporate ETH bid slowing its coin buys is worth watching. Bitmine is not alone in that pivot: Strategy paused Bitcoin buying to spend $204.9 million on STRC preferred stock buybacks. A 10,452 ETH week is still a real bid, but this time the bigger check went to shares.
