Bitmine Falls 7% as Tom Lee Says the Ethereum Buying Spree Is About to End; Sharplink and Strategy Drop 5%

A standing weekly buyer of Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) is about to step away from the market, and crypto treasury stocks are absorbing the shock. Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE:BMNR | BMNR Price Prediction) stock is down 7% to $24.49 in afternoon trading after its chairman indicated the end of the company’s weekly accumulation program.

Checking in on the peers, Sharplink (NASDAQ:SBET) stock is falling 5% to $8.99, a smaller drop for the company that sits closest to Bitmine’s business model. Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) shares are slipping 5% to $155.79, even though the company’s treasury is built on Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), a different token entirely.

At the same time, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (NASDAQ:ETHA) is down 4% to $58.24 as the token itself retreats. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is sliding just 0.3% to $776.84, leaving the biggest selling concentrated in crypto. That gap marks this as a token-specific story, with Bitmine at its center.

Tom Lee Signals the End of Bitmine’s Ethereum Buying

Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee addressed a crypto conference in Singapore. He stated the company will halt its Ethereum purchases once its holdings reach five percent of the token’s circulating supply, adding that Bitmine is close to that level. Bitmine had expected the effort to take five years, Lee declared. However, the company finished the job in a little over a year, through a bear market (a prolonged stretch of falling prices), and is now going to stop.

Lee stated that Bitmine holds 6,016,414 Ether, equal to 4.9% of the token’s circulating supply as of its latest disclosure. Every week since the launch of Bitmine’s treasury strategy, the company has bought Ethereum, making Bitmine one of the token’s most consistent sources of demand. Lee has previously indicated the company could sell Ether earned through staking (locking up tokens to help secure the network in exchange for rewards) to keep its stake from drifting above that ceiling.

Shares of Bitmine are falling further than Sharplink stock or Strategy Inc. stock and well beyond the broad market, while the Ethereum fund is down sharply too, because as a standing weekly purchaser Bitmine supplied steady demand for the token its own balance sheet is built on, and an announced end to that buying removes the support. This explains why the news lands harder on Bitmine than on a treasury company holding a different asset.

Weighing Bitmine Once Accumulation Ends

Bitmine’s upside depends on reaching the five percent ceiling, which completes a plan management mapped out as a five-year effort and wrapped up in a little over one year. Once cash stops flowing into accumulation, Bitmine can direct that capital elsewhere, which may give Bitmine stock a fresh source of interest.

On the other hand, the bearish view holds that Bitmine’s weekly buying was itself part of the investment thesis. A treasury company that stops accumulating becomes a holding vehicle whose stock has no catalyst beyond the token’s own price, and Bitmine would face that test directly. With the Ethereum fund down 4% alongside the bigger slide in Bitmine stock, that dependence on the token is clearly visible.

What to Watch Next

What matters next for Bitmine is what the company does with its capital once the accumulation stops. Investors will be looking at whether Lee’s earlier suggestion of selling Ether earned through staking becomes a regular practice that keeps Bitmine’s stake near the ceiling.

Bitmine stock is falling harder than both the ETHA Ethereum fund and the SPY ETF, a reminder of how much leverage the company’s treasury model carries. Cautious traders could reduce their position sizes and look for signs that the smaller decline in Sharplink stock holds, which would point to Bitmine’s announcement as the main driver of the selling.

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