BitMine Immersion Technologies has added another 82,560 Ether, worth roughly $259 million, to Ethereum’s staking system, intensifying congestion in the network’s validator entry queue as institutional demand for yield continues to build.
Data from Arkham shows that the Ether (ETH) treasury firm sent multiple large deposits to Ethereum’s BatchDeposit contract within the past few hours. With the new stake, BitMine’s total staked ETH has climbed to 544,064 Ether, valued at approximately $1.62 billion at current prices, according to onchain analyst Lookonchain.
BitMine first started staking ETH on Dec. 26, transferring nearly $219 million worth of ETH to staking-related contracts on the Ethereum network.
In November, BitMine revealed plans to begin staking Ether in the first quarter of 2026 through an internal infrastructure known as the Made-in-America Validator Network (MAVAN). The company said it had selected three institutional staking providers for an initial pilot, deploying a limited amount of ETH to evaluate performance, security and operational reliability before expanding the program.
Related: Ethereum’s tokenization role takes focus as Tom Lee outlines bullish outlook
Ether validator entry queue nears 1 million ETH
Meanwhile, BitMine’s aggressive staking push has helped push Ethereum’s validator entry queue to roughly 977,000 ETH, with an estimated wait time of nearly 17 days for new validators to become active, according to the blockchain explorer Ethereum Validator Queue.
On the other hand, exit activity remains comparatively light, with just over 113,000 ETH waiting to withdraw.
Ethereum’s network data shows that more than 35.5 million ETH, or roughly 29% of total supply, is now staked, while the annualized staking yield stands near 2.54%.
Abdul, the head of DeFi at layer 1 blockchain Monad, said in an X post last week that the last time the entry and exit queue flipped in June, Ether “doubled in price shortly after,” and predicted that “2026 going to be a movie.”
Related: BitMine locks up $1B in Ether as big corporates stake ETH for yield
Tom Lee pushes massive share expansion at BitMine
As Cointelegraph reported, Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, is urging shareholders to approve a sharp increase in the company’s authorized share count to 50 billion, arguing the move is needed to accommodate future stock splits if Ether’s price drives BitMine’s valuation higher.
Lee said the company’s share price closely tracks ETH and modeled scenarios in which Ether reaches $250,000 if Bitcoin climbs to $1 million, a level that would push BitMine shares to prices he believes would price out most retail investors.
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