BitMine Begins Staking Its $12 Billion Ethereum Holdings

BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, has begun staking part of its $12 billion ETH treasury.On December 27, on-chain analyst Ember CN reported that the firm deposited approximately 74,880 ETH, valued at about $219 million, into Ethereum staking contracts.Why is BitMine Staking Its Holdings?The move represents only a small slice of BitMine’s total holdings of roughly 4.07 million ETH, currently valued near $12 billion.Still, it signals a meaningful shift in how the company intends to manage its balance sheet.If the company were to stake its entire treasury at the current estimated annual percentage yield (APY) of 3.12%, it would generate approximately 126,800 ETH annually. At current prices, this equates to $371 million in yearly revenue.Such a structure would effectively recast BitMine as a yield-bearing vehicle tied to Ethereum’s consensus layer. This means its valuation would no longer hinge primarily on the asset’s directional price movements.ETH Staking Goals and RisksHowever, the strategy introduces new financial and operational risks for the company.Unlike Bitcoin held in cold storage, which can be liquidated immediately in stressed market conditions, staked Ether is constrained by protocol-level withdrawal mechanics.Validators exiting the network must pass through an exit queue, which can delay access to capital during periods of heightened volatility.In a liquidity crunch, that delay could leave BitMine exposed to price swings that a non-staking treasury might otherwise avoid.This tradeoff underscores a structural difference between holding Ethereum as a passive asset and deploying it as productive capital within the network.Still, BitMine has a long-term goal of acquiring and staking 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.To support that vision, the firm is developing a proprietary staking platform, the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), scheduled for deployment in early 2026.“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,” BitMine chair Thomas Lee said.Meanwhile, critics argue that consolidating such a large share of Ether under a single US-domiciled validator framework introduces centralization risks. They say the structure could undermine a network designed to be neutral and globally distributed.With BitMine currently controlling about 3.36% of the total ETH supply, MAVAN could, in theory, face pressure to comply with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions.As a result, the firm could refuse to validate blocks containing transactions linked to sanctioned addresses.