Tom Lee’s BitMine Increases Staked ETH To $2.5B as Ethereum Staking Queue Surges

Ethereum Staking activity became severe, as institutional investors deposited huge sums of ETH within the system. The shift is in terms of increasing use of staking over trading. According to on-chain data, there is an evident decline in actively circulating Ether in recent sessions.

BitMine Adds $605M ETH as Ethereum Staking Locks $2.5B

Arkham Intelligence blockchain analytics data indicates that BitMine deposited another 186,336 ETH equivalent of approximately $605 million. The transactions were confirmed through on-chain validator activity.

Recent staking activity raised BitMine’s total staked holdings to approximately 779,488 ETH. This is worth over $2.5 billion tied up in the Ethereum consensus system at the present market prices. Staked ETH does not trade on trading platforms, but receives protocol-level rewards.

BitMine, the largest Ethereum treasury company in the world, increased its staking operations that it began on Dec. 26. The company also first invested 82,560 ETH worth almost $260 million. This act was the beginning of the acceleration accumulation period.

As of press time ETH is trading at $3,215 and up by 0.37% over the past day. Market data indicated that trading volume increased by over 20.78% to over $28.68 billion.

ETH Staking Queues Shift as Exit Demand Drops

The demand for Ethereum Staking improved in queues of validators. According to recent data provided by beaconcha.in, the queue to the exit of validators dropped to 32 ETH. The wait time was at an estimated one minute.

This level will be a decrease of approximately 99.9% since mid-September 2025. Over 2.67 million ETH should have been withdrawn at the time. The decrease means that there is a decline in the number of stakers willing to leave the network.

In its turn, the staking entry queue grew to close to 1.3 million ETH. This has been the largest figure since mid-November 2025. The statistics demonstrate a new involvement of holders in ETH as a yielding commitment.

In an X post, Rostyk, the chief technology officer at Asymetrix, termed the exit queue as ‘basically empty’. He claimed that only a small proportion of validators seem to be willing to pull the cash. His remarks were consistent with the on-chain numbers.

Regulated Ethereum Staking products are also emerging via institutional exposure. The company that initially distributed staking rewards was Grayscale, based on a US-traded crypto exchange-traded product. The payout on the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF.

The distribution will be viewed as the first scheduled cash distribution based on Ethereum staking reward of U.S.-listed spot crypto ETP. The new location adds a new channel whereby the institutions are able to gain exposure in terms of staking. The data show that the Ethereum Staking continues to experience a massive inflow of capital at the macro level.