Bitmine Locks Up $1b In Ether As Big Corporates Stake ETH For Yield

The largest corporate Ethereum holders continue seeking passive yield through staking, effectively reducing the sellable Ether supply on the open market.

Corporations are increasingly turning to Ethereum staking to earn passive yield, a shift that is tightening the amount of Ether available for sale on the open market.

BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, staked 342,560 ETH worth over $1 billion in the two days leading up to Sunday, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain.

Staking involves locking ETH into Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network to secure the blockchain in exchange for a passive annual percentage yield (APY) of about 3%–5%.

BitMine’s $1 billion in staked Ether also significantly impacted the Ethereum validator queue, with the entry queue having expanded to almost double the size of the exit queue for the first time in over six months, Cointelegraph reported earlier on Monday.

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The validator entry queue stands at 12 days and 20 hours, with 739,824 ETH awaiting staking, while the exit queue stood at 6 days and two hours, with 349,867 ETH awaiting withdrawal, according to validatorqueue.

The queue shows that nearly twice as many entities are looking to stake ETH for passive income compared to the validators waiting to withdraw their stakes, signaling more long-term confidence in Ether.

When the exit queue is larger, it signals that validators are looking to withdraw their Ether, potentially positioning to sell their holdings.

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Source: CoinTelegraph