PANews reported on May 8th that BitMine Chairman Tom Lee stated at Consensus 2026 that the company is currently buying approximately 100,000 ETH per week. At this rate, it will reach its 5% Ethereum holding target in about six weeks. However, the company is evaluating whether to slow down the buying pace and instead allocate capital to its $4 billion stock buyback program. BitMine's annualized Ethereum staking income exceeds $300 million, the company's overall daily cash flow exceeds $1.2 million, and it holds approximately $700 million in cash reserves.

Tom Lee predicts that if Bitcoin closes above $76,000 at the end of May, it will mark the end of a three-month consecutive rise, signifying the end of the bear market, as Bitcoin has never historically remained in a bear market after three consecutive months of gains. He gives three target prices for Ethereum: if Bitcoin rises to $250,000 and the ETH/BTC exchange rate returns to its 2021 high, Ethereum would be around $22,000; if the ETH/BTC exchange rate reaches 0.25, it would be around $62,000; and if tokenization experiences a massive surge and Ethereum becomes the primary settlement layer for a multi-trillion dollar market, it would be around $250,000.