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BitMine, a listed crypto firm led by chairman Thomas Tom Lee, plans to switch on its Made in America Validator Network in early 2026, aiming to earn staking yield from a $12B ETH hoard.
The company said Monday it now holds 4,110,525 Ether, a stash it values at about $12B, making it the largest publicly-disclosed Ethereum treasury and placing it among the biggest crypto balance sheets in the market.
Lee has pitched MAVAN as the next step in that strategy, moving BitMine from accumulation to monetisation through validator operations.
“We continue to make progress on our staking solution known as The Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN). This will be the ‘best-in-class’ solution offering secure staking infrastructure and will be deployed in early calendar 2026,” continued Lee.
Breaking Down The Economics Of Staking At Institutional Scale
Validator economics sit at the centre of the bet, with rewards paid in ether and shaped by network activity, validator uptime, and the yield environment that can also include MEV related revenue.
BitMine has drawn headlines with a $1M a day narrative tied to staking at scale.
“At scale (when Bitmine’s ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the ETH staking fee is $374 million annual (using 2.81% CESR), or greater than $1 million per day” Lee said.
That number rests on a stack of assumptions, including staking most of the treasury, maintaining high validator performance with minimal penalties, and seeing yields and prices stay supportive enough to keep dollar returns elevated.
Regulatory Shifts Add Tailwinds To BitMine’s Staking Push
For now, BitMine is not at full throttle. The company said 408,627 Ether is already staked with third party providers as it tests MAVAN ahead of a broader rollout targeted for early 2026.
BitMine has also kept buying. It said it added 44,463 Ether in the past week, describing itself as the largest “fresh money” buyer of Ether, and it put its combined crypto, cash and “moonshots” holdings at $13.2 billion, including $1.0 billion in cash.
The stock has become part of the story too, since liquidity matters when a treasury strategy starts to look like a leveraged proxy for Ether. BitMine said BMNR traded about $980 million a day on a five day average, ranking 47th among US listed stocks as of December 26, 2025.
Policy Signals In Washington Reshape The Crypto Backdrop
Backers named in the company’s disclosures include ARK’s Cathie Wood, Founders Fund, Pantera, Kraken, DCG and Galaxy Digital, with BitMine framing that support around its longer term goal of reaching 5% of the Ether supply, a target it calls the “Alchemy of 5%”.
The Made in America framing also lands in a market shaped by regulatory scars from earlier staking fights, including the SEC’s 2023 case that led Kraken to shut its US staking as a service programme and pay $30M.
Under President Donald Trump, the SEC has moved to dismiss its civil enforcement action against Coinbase, part of a broader rethink of crypto enforcement in Washington.
Investors get another checkpoint in January. BitMine has called its annual stockholder meeting for Jan. 15, 2026 at the Wynn Las Vegas, and its proxy filing outlines votes that include director matters and proposals tied to capital structure and incentive plans.
