BitMine Nears Its 5% ETH Cap: What It Means for Ethereum Holders

There's a company in America that spent 15 months hoovering up Ethereum while plenty of ordinary holders were too scared to touch it. And by October, it was getting paid around a million dollars a day for holding it. And then its chairman walked out on a stage in Singapore and basically said, "Thanks very much. We're done." Right, bull runners, that company's called Bitmain, and its chairman is Wall Street's Tom Lee from Fundstrat. And on the 7th of October 2026, at Token 2049, he told the room that Bitmain stopped buying at 5% of all the ETH there is, and he called it a hard cap.

So, I want you to properly hear this. Ethereum holders, the biggest company buyer of ETH is almost done stacking. So, who holds up the or floor? Because Tom Lee says Bitmain helped set your floor, then said it's stopping at 5%. And if you own Ethereum, Tom Lee says Bitmain earns about a million dollars a day staking as it winds down buying.

And the coin sat in your app might be earning you nothing at all. So, they bought it when people were scared, and they get paid while they hold it, and they get to walk away the minute it suits them. And you're the one left standing on whatever's underneath. They built the floor for themselves, not for you. And keep an eye on the description, because the link at the very top is one a lot of holders have used, so they're not the last to hear things.

So, keep it in mind, because before we wrap up, I'll tell you what's on the other side. My name's Rory. I've been trading in crypto and forex since 2020, and it's given me a full-time income and the freedom to travel the world while I do it. And stick with me, because by the end you'll know how much Ethereum Bitmain actually piled up, and what it gets paid for, why Tom Lee says he's stopping at 5%, and the two numbers to check on your phone so a big buyer walking off doesn't catch you out. Like if you're bullish, let's run it.

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Able runners, welcome back. So, who on earth is Bitmain? Put simply, it's a treasury company which is basically a company on the stock market that sells its own shares and uses the money to buy one coin and sit on it. And back in August 2025, Tom Lee told CNBC exactly whose playbook he was copying.

And which is why you're now the chair of Bitmain, which is looking to build out this treasury of Ethereum, not so differently than we've seen Michael Saylor do with Bitcoin at strategy.

Yes. That's right. So, I think that MicroStrategy has written the playbook for what a Bitcoin treasury is.

Michael Saylor's playbook, but with Ethereum. And Lee did it fast because Bitmain started on the 30th of June 2025 and by its own update on the 12th of October 2026, it had just over 6 million ETH, which is close to 5% of every ETH in existence. And at the price it used, that's well over 15 billion dollars. And that works out at about 90,000 ETH a week on average for 15 months, which is mad because that's a shopping trolley the size of a lorry every single week. But in that same update, the week's buy was about 12 and 1/2 thousand, about a seventh of its usual pace.

And Tom Lee had told the room in Singapore what was going on.

So, in fact, I kind of think we helped set a floor for ETH. We protected the downside for ETH because we were buying. But now, we're done stacking.

We helped set a floor and we're done stacking. And that's what gets under my skin because if the biggest company buyer was the floor and the floor says it's done, then what's holding up your ETH? You'd want to know, wouldn't you? So, you might be thinking, "Rory, I don't own Bitmain, so why should I care?" Well, two things. First, Tom Lee says Bitmain's been added to the Russell 1000, which is a list of big American companies that index fund follows.

So, if your pension or your ISA holds a fund tracking that list, you could own a sliver of Bitmain and never know it. And second, look at the price. When Bitmain started at the end of June 2025, ETH closed at around $2,490. In August 2025, it closed at about 4,830. And on Bitmain's own number for the 12th of October 2026, it was about 2,540.

So, 15 months of one company buying like mad and the price went round in one big circle and landed pretty much where it started. But, Bitmain didn't just go round in a circle, did it? Because when ordinary holders were waiting, it was getting paid.

And lastly, we're going to leverage our skill. We have Maven. It's our staking operation. It's generating a million dollars a day in staking rewards.

A million dollars a day. And Bitmain's own post on the 12th of October puts it about 336 million dollars a year from just over 5 million ETH that's staked. And staking basically means putting your coins to work, securing the network, and getting paid for it. So, they bought in the fear and they get paid in the wait. They built the floor for themselves, not for you.

So, why stop? Well, here's how Tom Lee put it.

The second thing is we wanted to get to 5% of the supply. That's a hard cap. We're not going to be accumulating past 5%. Okay? Because people don't want to think we're diluting shareholders, which we have not been.

Diluting shareholders. And if that word's new to you, think of the pizza. Every time a company sells new shares, the pizza gets cut into more slices. So, everybody's slice gets thinner unless what it buys makes the pizza bigger. Tom Lee says they haven't diluted anyone, and that's his view.

But, the whole machine ran on selling shares and turning the money into ETH. And in that same talk, he told the room a way to beat ETH is to buy the treasury company, meaning Bitmain. So, they stopped buying the coin you hold, and they'd quite like you to buy their shares instead, which is a bit cheeky, isn't it? And it didn't stop dead. On the 19th of October, Bitmain's own update had it buying another 12 and 1/2 thousand ETH, around $30 million worth of it, and holding about 6.04 million.

So, it kept adding slowly right up to that 5%. But, in the week Tom Lee said it out loud, Bitmain's own updates had ETH going from around $2,726 to about $2,544. And I'm not saying he caused all of that, but the market heard him. So, what do you actually do about it? Well, I'll level with you.

The worst thing you can do is panic and sell because a man on stage said he's done. What I do is know my numbers. So, here's your 2-minute check. Grab your phone, open the app where your ETH sits, tap on it, and find your average buy price. Then, write it down next to two other numbers.

The first is about $2,490, where ETH closed when Bitmain started buying. The second is about $1,850, where it closed on the 5th of February 2026, right in the middle of all that buying. And then ask yourself, if the biggest company buyer isn't there to soak up the selling, which of those could I live with? And drop it in the comments. Did you buy your ETH before Bitmain turned up at the end of June 2025 or after it?

But, there's another side to this because stopping isn't selling. Think of the biggest buyer at a car boot sale going home with a full van. He's not coming back for more, but he's not tipping his van out on the field, either. Bitmain's own updates show it staking what it's got, and Tom Lee says money's been flowing into the crypto ETFs. And that flow is Tom Lee's own opinion, so nobody can prove what ETH would have done without it.

But there's a real risk, too, because a treasury company can sell. ETH Zilla, a smaller one, sold about 40 million dollars of ETH in October 2025 to buy back its own shares, and then about 74 and a half million in December 2025 to cut its debt. And I get it, because nobody offered you a seat at the table, did they? You were the one that sat through the drop with your money meant for the grandkids or the mortgage or finishing work a few years early, and every time a big name gets on a stage, your stomach turns over. Because if you sell and it rips, you'll never forgive yourself.

And if you hold and it slides, you'll lie awake over it. And either way, a man in Singapore is calling the shots for you. And that's not on you, because the whole game is set up so they get the cheap coins and the daily pay, and you get the headline. One of our members, John, is 68 years old, and his retirement plans have blown up on him. He'd moved some crypto and thought about 25 thousand dollars of it was gone for good, and he got it back.

Then he took XRP that was just sitting there and put it into two DeFi liquidity pools, which he says earned him around 23 dollars a day. In his own words, it's like buying a house and collecting rent on it. Results like John's aren't typical, and nobody's promising you the same thing. And inside, you'll find people of every sort of background, and a good few of them are just there to look after money they've worked hard for, with a weekly call where the research team takes their questions and one-to-one coaching on top. So, am I telling you to buy Ethereum?

Well, no. There may be better opportunities for your situation, but if your crypto's been sitting there doing nothing while the big players get paid a million a day on theirs, you can put the crypto you already hold to work and keep it in full self-custody. Your own wallet and your own keys, so it can't be flagged, frozen, or wiped out. I've done well in crypto off my own back, and what really sped me up was the team we built at Altcoin Pro, and they're who you'd be speaking to. So, click the first link in the description.

Watch the short free video, hit the button underneath it, fill in the short form, and book your free 15-minute call. And on that call, someone on the team sits you down with what you actually hold and goes through with you. And if you're watching on your phone, just tap more under this video, and the link's waiting at the very top. It's for people holding $50,000 or more in crypto that's just sitting there. And if you're already well set up, they'll tell you that, too.

And Devcon, the Ethereum Foundation's big conference, opens in Mumbai on the 3rd of November 2026, and the headlines come thick and fast around it. So, get your call booked before then, and know your numbers before the noise starts. Because they built the floor for themselves, not for you. So, make sure you know what's holding up yours. And look, none of this is financial advice, guys.

It's just my take after a lot of digging. Crypto carries risk, and what's happened before is no guarantee of what comes next. So, stick with me, subscribe, and there's a new one every day. Thanks for watching, guys. Keep your head, stack with purpose, and I'll keep you posted.

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