Bitmine deposited 74,880 ETH worth approximately $219 million into Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake protocol, marking the company’s first staking operation. The move comes as the largest Ethereum treasury holder seeks yield generation from its 4.066 million ETH holdings. EmberCN monitoring places the deposit on December 27. At an estimated 3.12% APY, staking the entire treasury would generate roughly 126,800 ETH per year.
Based on Ethereum’s current price, the annual staking rewards would be worth approximately $371 million. The initial deployment tests the staking infrastructure before potentially committing the full treasury, which stands at roughly $11.9 billion based on today’s ETH price. Bitmine has built its Ethereum position through systematic acquisitions similar to Strategy’s Bitcoin buying program. The decision to stake signals a long-term hold stance rather than active trading, as staked ETH can be withdrawn but requires a queue period that varies with network conditions.
Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee told CNBC that Ethereum could reach $7,000 to $9,000 in early 2026 and expressed optimism for crypto over the next five to ten years. He noted that Wall Street aims to tokenize everything, which he believes will drive Ethereum’s use case forward, and he suggested tokenization could propel Ethereum toward $20,000 as it competes with traditional payment rails. Lee addressed crypto’s October 10 reversal, calling it a liquidation event similar to 2022 when FTX collapsed, adding that markets took eight weeks to recover and suggesting current momentum could reflect a similar turnaround. He also discussed Bitcoin, saying the asset suffers from “gold envy” as gold reaches $30 trillion in value.
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