Ethereum Price Faces a Major Test as BitMine Nears 5% ETH Ownership

$ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum ecosystem, rose 0.95% during Friday’s U.S. market hours to trade at $2,312. The buying pressure gained its current momentum following the traditional U.S. stock market as indices like S&P500 and NasDaq hit new high. The coin price gained additional momentum from the steady buying pressure from treasury firms like BitMine. After relentless buying the company is close to its self claimed target of owning 5% of all Ethereum in existence. Once achieved, will BitMine go silent in accumulation of more $ETH and how it may impact Ethereum price.

Origin of the Strategy

BitMine’s Ethereum obsession began on a high note. The company has closed a $250 million private placement that it used to instantly invest in $ETH, doubling its stake within days of closing. Thomas “Tom” Lee, a founder of the Fundstrat, is the architect behind this and has been chairman of BitMine, the public face of the Ethereum believers.

Lee’s thesis was simple yet brave: copy the MicroStrategy Bitcoin, but this time with Ethereum. MicroStrategy’s continuous Bitcoin buying fueled its growth into what analysts described as a “sovereign put”: If a nation-state wanted to buy 5% of the Bitcoin network, it would find it easiest to purchase MSTR.

Lee said that the same could happen for $ETH as it did for Bitcoin, which he called the “Wall Street put.” For any institutional level exposure to Ethereum that could be meaningful, you would eventually have to go through BitMine.

The 5% Target and the Buying Machine

The number “5%” has never been a random figure. It was the tipping point that Lee and BitMine had determined their investments would become strategically significant enough for sovereign wealth funds, Wall Street institutions and nation-states to care about. Today, BitMine holds more than 4.29% of the total Ethereum circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens, and says it is 82% the way to the milestone. The pace of buying has been staggering. The company alone has purchased 71,524 $ETH during the past week, the highest single-week purchase since December 2025. At this rate, the 5% finish line isn’t far away. It’s just a matter of weeks.