Bitmine Expands Ether Staking With Massive Addition

Another Large Staking Move From Bitmine

Tom Lee's (@fundstrat) @BitMNR has added another 160,480 $ETH, worth roughly $249 million, to its staking portfolio, according to on-chain data from Lookonchain. The firm's total staked position now stands at 4.88 million ETH, valued at around $7.56 billion. That represents 86% of its entire Ethereum holdings.

The move continues a pattern of aggressive accumulation and active staking that has defined Bitmine's strategy since it pivoted away from Bitcoin mining and toward an Ethereum treasury model in June 2025. The company reached its current scale in roughly ten months after pivoting to a digital asset treasury strategy. Bitmine has positioned itself as the Ethereum equivalent of Strategy's Bitcoin model, accumulating $ETH at scale and staking a large portion of its holdings to generate recurring blockchain-based yield.

Staking Yield and the Path to 5%

Staking is central to Bitmine's investment case. The firm launched MAVAN (the Made in America Validator Network), an institutional-grade staking platform originally developed to support its own Ethereum treasury, with plans to expand the service to institutional investors, custodians, and ecosystem partners. When it completes the staking of its entire treasury, the company projects around $268 million in revenue on an annualized basis.

Bitmine has disclosed more than 5 million ETH in total holdings, making it the largest public Ethereum treasury company. The long-term target is to own 5% of Ethereum's circulating supply, a goal Lee has called the "Alchemy of 5%." Lee has said Bitmine is expected to reach that milestone sometime in 2026.

Bitmine's large staked position could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized rewards if current yields and staking levels are sustained. That income potential is central to the company's differentiation from Bitcoin treasury firms, which generally rely on asset appreciation rather than native yield.

Bitmine was also included on the preliminary Russell 1000 list during FTSE Russell's 2026 index reconstitution process. Russell index membership is significant because the benchmarks are tracked by trillions of dollars in passive and active assets, potentially creating fresh demand from funds that replicate or benchmark against the index.

Not everyone is without reservation. Critics argue that consolidating such a large share of Ether under a single US-domiciled validator framework introduces centralization risks and could undermine a network designed to be neutral and globally distributed. Regulatory questions also remain, as US regulators have debated how staking services should be treated when public companies or intermediaries generate yield from proof-of-stake networks.

Sources:
Bitmine Press Release: ETH Holdings Reach 5.67 Million Tokens (PR Newswire)
CoinDesk: Bitmine Buys $236 Million in Ether as Tom Lee Touts ETH as Wartime Store of Value
FinanceFeeds: BitMine Set to Join Russell 1000 as Staked ETH Reaches 4.88 Million