BitMine ramps up ETH staking as the validator entry line grows

At early-January prices, that’s more than $5.1 billion and roughly 4% of all ETH currently locked with Ethereum validators.

BitMine still holds a much larger stash overall. The company has reported 4,167,768 ETH on its balance sheet, meaning about 37% of its Ethereum treasury is now staked. In practice, this turns idle coins into a yield-generating asset and reduces the amount of ETH available for an immediate sale. Alongside ETH, BitMine has said it also holds other reserves, including a small BTC position, a sizable cash buffer, and a stake in Eightco Holdings.

The fresh deposits have also intensified pressure on the validator on-ramp. Queue trackers show roughly 2.3 million ETH sitting in the entry queue, the highest level since August 2023. With that kind of backlog, new validators have to wait before they can start proposing and attesting to blocks and earning rewards. For many market watchers, a long entry queue is often read as a sign of stronger staking demand and less freely circulating supply.

Late-December data offers a useful reference point. Between December 27 and 29, the amount of ETH waiting to be activated as validators exceeded exit requests for the first time in about six months, according to validator queue dynamics. Toward the end of 2025, as now, far more participants wanted to enter staking than withdraw and bring coins back into circulation.

There’s also a clear corporate angle. Large holders are increasingly trying to earn staking yield without cutting their ETH exposure, while also lowering the share of coins that could be sold quickly. The mechanics and motivations behind that approach are discussed using BitMine as an example in a piece on corporate interest in staking.

The market reacted with a price bounce: on the day the news circulated, ETH was up about 7% and traded around $3,375, with the next nearby area where sellers often show up around $3,400. If staking inflows stay elevated, the conversation around “freezing” liquid supply likely isn’t going away anytime soon.