Tom Lee's Bitmine has Staked 88% of its ETH Holdings

Tom Lee's Bitmine has now staked 4,553,557 $ETH worth roughly $10.77 billion, equal to 87.9% of its total Ethereum treasury. On-chain analytics account Lookonchain flagged the move on May 5, noting that Bitmine added another 190,800 ETH ($451 million) to its staked position roughly eight hours earlier.

That figure is up from 84% just two days ago, and it cements Bitmine (@BitMNR) as the largest centralized ETH staker on the network.

Bitmine's Staking Sprint

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: $BMNR) holds around 5.18 million ETH, or roughly 4.3% of total supply. According to the company's May 4 update, that treasury was 84% staked as of May 3, generating an estimated $297 million in annualized revenue at a 7-day yield of 2.91%.

The new 190,800 ETH transfer pushes that share to 87.9%. At full deployment, Bitmine projects staking revenue could climb to roughly $352 million per year. That is near-zero marginal cost income on an asset the company already owns outright.

The stake is routed through MAVAN, Bitmine's proprietary validator platform that launched in March 2026. Branded as the Made in America Validator Network, MAVAN was originally built to handle the company's own treasury but has since been opened to institutional partners and custodians.

Why is Bitmine Locking Up So Much ETH?

Tom Lee (@fundstrat) frames ETH less as a speculative trading asset and more as a yield-producing instrument, something closer to a digital Treasury bond paired with store-of-value properties. With the CLARITY Act in motion and tokenization picking up across traditional finance, that framing has gained traction.

By staking nearly 88% of its position, Bitmine is doing two things at once:

• Removing a meaningful chunk of ETH supply from immediate market circulation.
• Converting that supply into a recurring revenue stream worth more than $1 million per day at current yields.

The contrast with retail behavior is hard to miss. While ETH price action between $2,300 and $2,400 has rattled some traders, Bitmine and a handful of large treasuries have been adding aggressively. The company logged a 101,745 ETH buy ($238 million) in the week ending May 3 alone.

What About Centralization Risk?

Holding 4.3% of ETH supply and staking nearly all of it makes Bitmine the second-largest validator entity on Ethereum, behind only Lido. The benchmark worth noting is Lido itself, which controls roughly 27% of all staked ETH but operates as a decentralized protocol spread across 30-plus independent node operators. Bitmine is not at that level, but the gap is closing faster than most observers expected even six months ago.

MAVAN is structured as an institutional staking platform rather than a single validator pool, and the company has signaled that broadening it to outside institutions is part of the long-term plan. Whether that actually diffuses centralization concerns depends on how distributed the validator set becomes over time.

The Bigger Picture

Bitmine's strategy fits a broader pattern of public companies repositioning around digital asset treasuries. The company, chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, has backing from ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy, and Kraken. Its stated goal is to own at least 5% of the ETH supply.

Total assets sat at $13.1 billion as of the May 4 disclosure, covering the ETH stack, Bitcoin reserves, cash, and what the company labels its "moonshot" allocations.

Lee has been publicly bullish, recently declaring that "crypto spring has begun" despite what he describes as muted sentiment across the wider market. The 88% staking figure, stacked on top of weekly nine-figure buys, says the company is backing that call with size.

For Ethereum holders, the takeaway is straightforward. A US-listed company is now running one of the largest validator operations on the network, generating real yield, and showing no sign of slowing its accumulation. 

Sources:

• Lookonchain on X - On-chain alert breaking the 190,800 ETH stake and updated 87.9% figure.
• Arkham Intelligence: Bitmine Entity - Live wallet tracker covering Bitmine's holdings and validator activity.
• @BitMNR on X - Bitmine's official account, source for the May 4 weekly buy and staking thread.
• @fundstrat on X - Tom Lee's personal handle, source for the $10B milestone commentary.