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BitMine Locks Up 87% of Its Ethereum Holdings

BitMine uses its MAVAN validator network to generate yield from its treasury, while staking through Ethereum ETFs and institutional players keeps growing.

By Zenz van der Wielen
• 2 min read
BitMine Locks Up 87% of Its Ethereum Holdings

Key Takeaways

  • BitMine locked up another 150,120 ETH, worth about $278 million.
  • That brings the company’s total staked Ethereum position to 5,067,309 ETH, worth around $9.38 billion.
  • In total, 87.4% of BitMine’s entire ether supply is now locked in the validator network.

BitMine Immersion Technologies has staked another 150,120 Ethereum (ETH), worth roughly $278 million (€241 million). That lifts the company’s total staked position to 5,067,309 ETH, or about $9.38 billion (€8.1 billion), which means 87.4% of its entire ether supply is now locked up. The move makes it even clearer that Tom Lee’s crypto company is treating Ethereum as a long-term treasury asset, not just a short-term trade.

A Big Chunk of the Stack Is Locked Up

The latest transaction was flagged on August 4 by blockchain analytics account Lookonchain. Staking means those tokens are committed to Ethereum’s validator network instead of sitting in a crypto wallet. In exchange, validators earn rewards, but the assets are still subject to market swings while they remain locked.

With nearly nine-tenths of its Ethereum now staked, BitMine is clearly leaning hard into that approach. The company is using the Made in America Validator Network, or MAVAN, a proprietary institutional staking setup it built to earn yield from its Ethereum treasury. BitMine has also said it eventually wants to make that infrastructure available to outside clients.

Fits Into the Broader Ethereum Trend

The timing lines up with a broader shift in the market, where Ethereum staking is becoming more central to how the network is used. By early 2026, about 35.8 million ETH, or nearly 30% of the circulating supply, was locked in the network, backed by roughly 1.1 million active validators, according to market data. In February, the Ethereum Foundation also launched its Treasury Staking Initiative with around 70,000 ETH to earn native yield.

Institutions now have an easier path in as well. Since staking-enabled Ethereum ETFs such as BlackRock’s ETHB launched in March 2026, professional investors have been able to access staking through regulated products without taking direct custody of ETH. The network also saw several upgrades in 2025, including Pectra and Fusaka, which improved validator limits, account management, and Layer 2 scalability.

BitMine is still buying at a fast pace, too. In a recent update, the company said its Ethereum treasury already held nearly 5.8 million ETH, putting it among the largest public ETH positions in the world.

Why This Matters

For European crypto readers, BitMine is a good example of how staking has become a major part of the institutional Ethereum story. If more players keep locking up their ETH, that could tighten liquidity in the freely tradable supply, although that does not tell us anything about where the price will go next. What it does show is that for a growing number of investors, Ethereum is not only a trading asset, but also a network that can produce yield.

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