Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, has executed another major Ethereum staking transaction. The company staked an additional 61,232 ETH, worth approximately $142 million at current prices, bringing its total staked position to 3.39 million ETH valued at $7.88 billion. This move continues Bitmine's aggressive accumulation strategy, which Lee has framed around the concept of the “Alchemy of 5%” — the goal of ultimately controlling 5% of all circulating ether.
Aggressive Accumulation Continues
Bitmine has made the acquisition and staking of ether the centerpiece of its corporate treasury strategy. The company has accumulated approximately 4.976 million ETH (equal to 4.12% of the total ether supply) with a stated target of reaching 5% of all ETH in circulation. Of Bitmine’s total ETH holdings, 68.24% are now staked, generating annualized staking revenue of approximately $212 million at a current 7-day yield of 2.89%. The annualized yield figure may appear modest in isolation, but at Bitmine’s scale, the absolute returns are material — $212 million per annum.
The scale of the company’s validator deployments has had measurable effects on the Ethereum network. When Bitmine ramped up staking activity in early 2026, it pushed the Ethereum validator queue into an $8 billion backlog, with new validators waiting more than 44 days to be activated. This underscores the outsized influence of a single institutional player on the network's infrastructure.
Institutional Staking Platform: MAVAN
Beyond its own staking, Bitmine recently launched MAVAN, the “Made in America Validator Network,” an institutional Ethereum staking platform designed for external participants. MAVAN provides institutional participants direct access to Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, enabling them to earn staking rewards without the operational overhead of running their own validators. The platform is expected to further entrench Bitmine's position as the largest Ethereum validator operator globally and expand the institutional adoption of ETH staking.
Lee’s Ethereum Thesis
Tom Lee has called ETH “the wartime store of value,” arguing that ether’s utility across decentralized applications, staking infrastructure, and institutional treasury functions makes it structurally different from bitcoin. He has set a price target of $7,000 to $9,000 for ETH by the end of 2026, and $62,500 by 2030. The strategy mirrors what Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy has executed with bitcoin, targeting 1 million BTC by late 2026. Bitmine is pursuing a comparable thesis on Ethereum, with staking yield adding a cash-flow dimension that a pure accumulation strategy does not provide.
With 4.12% of ETH supply already held, Bitmine is within striking range of its 5% goal. Each additional stake moves the needle on one of the most closely watched corporate crypto treasury positions in the market. Investors will be watching closely to see whether Lee’s “Alchemy of 5%” can be realized, and what impact it will have on Ethereum’s network, validator economics, and price trajectory.