Ethereum

Chair

Bitcoin

Tom Lee

<ul>
 <li>Saylor has doubled down on Strategy’s Bitcoin bet, saying that the company will buy 10 BTC for every 1 BTC it sells.</li>
 <li>Bitmine has announced it’s slowing down its Ethereum purchases, with Chair Tom Lee claiming that it had been accumulating faster than originally planned.</li>
</ul>
Michael Saylor and Strategy have been all over the news in recent days after the company revealed it might start selling its Bitcoin, breaking its ‘never sell’ pledge. Since the announcement, the company has been in damage control mode, pointing out nuances to the sales and dismissing market concerns. Saylor is at it again, and this time, he says that the company will buy 10 times more coins than it sells.
Saylor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhtYB48ktDY&amp;t=259s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">joined</a> journalist David Lin in a recent interview where he explained what he meant by his ‘Never Sell Your Bitcoin’ mantra, Strategy’s BTC accumulation and where the market heads next.
Asked about Strategy’s announcement that it might sell some of its coins, which we <a href="https://ethnews.com/saylor-says-strategy-may-sell-bitcoin-to-pay-dividends/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a> on, he stated:
<blockquote>
 “Even if we were to sell 1 Bitcoin, we would be buying 10-20 more. You’re really talking about a situation where we buy 9 net Bitcoin and continue to accumulate. It should be a non-issue after people understand it, but right now, it’s a colorful area of commentary.”
</blockquote>
Saylor’s comments paint the company’s strategy as ‘maintain a net buy position.’ However, this goes against comments made by CEO Phong Le, who claimed that the company’s position will be dictated “by math, not ideology.”
As we <a href="https://ethnews.com/strategy-ceo-math-not-ideology-will-decide-when-we-sell-bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a>, Le said that Strategy would sell BTC if the company’s market value drops below its book value. Currently, this value stands at 1.20; dropping below 1 would dictate BTC sales according to Le’s comments. A drop below 1 has happened before, most recently in November last year.
<h2 id="strong-bitmine-cuts-down-ethereum-accumulation-strong">Bitmine Cuts Down Ethereum Accumulation</h2>
While Saylor is pledging to buy more BTC, Ethereum’s largest corporate bull is slowing the accumulation. Tom Lee <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitmine-immersion-technologies-bmnr-announces-eth-holdings-reach-5-21-million-tokens-and-total-crypto-and-total-cash-holdings-of-13-4-billion-302767816.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">announced</a> today that Bitmine Immersion Technologies, his ETH treasury firm, was cutting down the pace at which it’s buying the crypto.
Previously, Bitmine has been purchasing over 100,000 ETH tokens a week. However, last week, it bought 26,659 ETH for $63 million, nearly 75% lower than its weekly quota.
In a statement, Lee said that if the company had continued accumulating at the same pace, it would have hit its target of owning 5% of the ETH supply by July. However, the company’s goal is to hit this target later this year, around October. Bitmine currently controls 4.3% of the ETH supply and has acquired over 1 million tokens this year alone.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 Bitmine published the latest Chairman’s message for May
 – many important topics covered including – <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$ETH</a> as both diversification and hedge for a portfolio – <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$ETH</a> in an AI and tokenized world
 Give it a watch <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f440.png" alt="👀"><a href="https://t.co/bvcKdwAwZY" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/bvcKdwAwZY</a><a href="https://t.co/IP4VwISSnI" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/IP4VwISSnI</a>
 — Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH (@BitMNR) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitMNR/status/2053862415637401828?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">May 11, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
Collectively, Bitmine holds 5.2 million ETH coins, worth $12 billion, and has staked 4.7 million coins, which is over 90% of the total.
Lee stated:
<blockquote>
 “Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world. At scale (when Bitmine’s ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the projected ETH staking reward is $352 million annually (using 2.86% 7-day BMNR yield).”
</blockquote>
Ethereum trades at $2,340 after sideways trading over the past day.
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The post <a href="https://ethnews.com/saylor-doubles-down-on-btc-as-bitmine-pumps-brakes-on-eth/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Saylor Doubles Down on BTC as Bitmine Pumps Brakes on ETH</a> appeared first on <a href="https://ethnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETHNews</a>.

Saylor Doubles Down on BTC as Bitmine Pumps Brakes on ETH

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