Tom Lee: BitMine is considering slowing down Ethereum purchases and shifting to stock buybacks

Foresight News reports that Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine, stated at the "Consensus 2026" conference in Miami that BitMine currently purchases about 100,000 ETH per week. At this rate, BitMine is expected to reach its 5% Ethereum portfolio target in the next six weeks. However, the company is evaluating whether to slow down its buying pace and instead allocate capital to a $4 billion buyback plan. He noted that BitMine's annualized income from Ethereum staking exceeds $300 million (approximately $1 million per day), with overall daily company cash flow surpassing $1.2 million, and an additional cash reserve of about $700 million.

In terms of market outlook, Tom Lee stated that if Bitcoin closes above $76,000 at the end of May, it will mark three consecutive months of price increases, signaling the official end of the bear market. Historically, Bitcoin has never remained in a bear market after rising for three straight months. He presented three Ethereum price targets: If Bitcoin rises to $250,000 and the ETH/BTC exchange rate returns to its 2021 high, Ethereum would correspond to about $22,000. If the ETH/BTC exchange rate reaches 0.25, which is extremely optimistic, it would correspond to $62,000. If large-scale tokenization occurs and Ethereum becomes the main settlement layer for a multi-trillion dollar market, it would correspond to $250,000.