BitMine Immersion Technologies has staked an additional 82,560 Ether—worth about $259 million—further tightening congestion in Ethereum’s validator entry queue as institutional appetite for staking yields continues to grow.
Arkham data shows the Ether treasury firm made several large transfers to Ethereum’s BatchDeposit contract over the past few hours. Following the latest deposits, BitMine’s total staked ETH now stands at 544,064 Ether, valued at roughly $1.62 billion at current prices, according to onchain analyst Lookonchain.
The company began staking Ether on Dec. 26, when it moved nearly $219 million worth of ETH into staking-related contracts on the Ethereum network.
In November, BitMine announced plans to roll out Ether staking in the first quarter of 2026 using its in-house infrastructure, dubbed the Made-in-America Validator Network (MAVAN). As part of an initial pilot, the firm selected three institutional staking providers and deployed a limited amount of ETH to assess performance, security and operational resilience before scaling up.
Ethereum validator entry queue nears 1 million ETH
BitMine’s accelerated staking activity has contributed to Ethereum’s validator entry queue swelling to around 977,000 ETH. New validators now face an estimated activation wait time of nearly 17 days, according to data from the Ethereum Validator Queue explorer.
By contrast, validator exits remain relatively subdued, with just over 113,000 ETH currently queued for withdrawal.
Ethereum network data shows that more than 35.5 million ETH—about 29% of the total supply—is currently staked, with annualized staking yields hovering around 2.54%.
Abdul, head of DeFi at layer-1 blockchain Monad, noted in an X post last week that the previous instance when Ethereum’s validator entry queue surpassed the exit queue in June was followed by Ether doubling in price shortly afterward. He suggested a similar dynamic could play out again, adding that “2026 is going to be a movie.”
Tom Lee calls for major share expansion at BitMine
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, BitMine chairman Tom Lee is pushing shareholders to approve a substantial increase in the company’s authorized share count to 50 billion. He argues the move would allow for future stock splits if rising Ether prices significantly boost BitMine’s valuation.
Lee said BitMine’s share price closely mirrors ETH’s performance and outlined scenarios in which Ether could reach $250,000 should Bitcoin climb to $1 million. At those levels, he warned, BitMine’s share price could rise so high that it would become inaccessible to most retail investors.
