What exactly did BitMine announce?
BitMine Immersion Technologies, chaired by well-known ethereum advocate Tom Lee, said it had increased its ether (ETH) reserves to 6,051,933 coins. According to Incrypted, that corresponds to roughly 4.95% of the total ETH supply, which the source puts at 122.2 million coins.
The combined value of the company's crypto assets, cash, securities, and investments reached USD 15 billion according to the same announcement. Per Incrypted, BitMine has been buying ether every week since launching its accumulation strategy in June 2025.
A note on the date: the Incrypted source gives the status "as of October 25, 2026." Given that the other details match the accumulation launched in 2025, this is likely a typo and should correctly read 2025. We therefore mark the exact date as uncertain.
Why is it interesting that the purchases are slowing?
Here is the less obvious part of the story. According to BitHub.pl, BitMine bought 10,452 ETH over the past week. At the price given in the company's statement (BitHub.pl cites it as USD 2,356), that works out to roughly USD 24.6 million, which is said to be the smallest weekly purchase since mid-August.
A word of caution about that price: USD 2,356 per ETH is significantly lower than ether typically traded during that period, so the figure in the original statement may be wrong or tied to a different metric. We report it as the source did and leave it flagged as uncertain.
What matters, though, is the pace: the trend in weekly purchases is shrinking according to BitHub.pl.
So where are the companies sending money instead of making more purchases?
Alongside the smaller ether purchase, BitMine bought back 2.04 million of its own shares for roughly USD 45.9 million according to BitHub.pl. The company therefore put more money into buying back its own shares than into purchasing new ETH.
This pattern is not unique. Kryptonovinky.cz and Kryptonovinky.sk, citing an SEC filing described by Decrypt, report that Michael Saylor's Strategy did not buy a single bitcoin over the past week, breaking a streak of weekly purchases that had run since mid-September. Instead, it spent USD 204.9 million buying back its STRC preferred shares, specifically 2,068,459 units. According to the same sources, Strategy still holds 848,517 BTC.
| Company | Main asset | Move over the past week | Share buyback |
|---|---|---|---|
| BitMine | ETH (6,051,933) | Bought 10,452 ETH (approx. USD 24.6 million) | 2.04 million shares (approx. USD 45.9 million) |
| Strategy | BTC (848,517) | No BTC purchase | STRC for USD 204.9 million (2,068,459 units) |
Sources: BitHub.pl (BitMine), Kryptonovinky.cz and Kryptonovinky.sk (Strategy).
What does it mean, and what do we not yet know?
Two major corporate crypto holders, in the same week, prioritized buying their own shares over buying more coins. That is a factual observation, not a prediction. One interpretation is that the companies are responding to the relationship between the market price of their shares and the value of the assets on their balance sheet, but the cause cannot be proven from the available sources, so we do not present it as certain.
What remains open:
- Motivation. The sources do not describe an official reason why BitMine slowed its ETH purchases and bought back shares. Any claim about intent would be speculation.
- The exact date of the reserve status. Because of the likely typo (2026), we are not verifying the exact day.
- The price figure of USD 2,356 per ETH. It looks inconsistent with the market reality of that period; we treat it as reported, not confirmed.
What to watch for in this type of story
For companies that build their balance sheet around a single crypto asset, three things are worth tracking: whether regular purchases continue, how large they are, and whether the company starts directing part of its capital elsewhere (typically into buying back its own shares or paying down debt). These are not trading recommendations, just indicators that can later be used to review how the strategy evolved.