BitMine Immersion Technologies, a public digital asset company, has expanded Ethereum’s staking system with an additional 82,560 Ether, valued at around $259 million.This move has contributed to congestion in the network’s validator entry queue, driven by rising institutional demand for staking yields. Regarding the situation, Arkham released recent data reporting several significant deposits made by the Ether treasury firm to Ethereum’s BatchDeposit contract. These deposits were made in the past few hours.Following the new stake, a report from on-chain analyst Lookonchain revealed that the total number of ETH staked now amounts to 544,064 Ether, worth approximately $1.62 billion, according to current prices. BitMine kicks off major ETH staking pushBitMine implemented its decision to stake additional ETH on December 26, 2025, and transferred almost $219 million in ETH into contracts related to staking on the Ethereum network. Before carrying out this move, BitMine initially made clear its intentions to begin staking Ether in the first quarter of 2026 in a statement published in November. The statement also noted that this staking process will take place using the company’s internal infrastructure, known as the Made-in-America Validator Network (MAVAN).It was also confirmed that BitMine selected three institutional staking providers for a pilot initiative. Apart from this, sources disclosed that the firm intended to deploy a limited amount of ETH meant to evaluate performance, security, and reliability before executing their motive to add new stakes.Meanwhile, reports highlighted that BitMine’s intensified effort into staking led to Ethereum’s validator entry queue reaching around 977,000 ETH. Due to this congestion, the Ethereum Validator Queue, a blockchain explorer, indicates that new validators are expected to wait approximately 17 days to become active.On the other hand, analysts conducted research and discovered that the amount of exit activity is relatively low, with slightly more than 113,000 ETH awaiting withdrawal. At this point, data from Ethereum’s network showed that more than 35.5 million ETH, which approximately accounts for 29% of the total supply, is currently staked. For the annual staking yield, the report noted that it had amounted to about 2.54%.Abdul Rehman, who holds the title of Head of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) at the Monad Foundation and leads DeFi at the layer one blockchain Monad, commented on the situation. He shared an X post last week, highlighting that “when the entry and exit queue changed back in June, Ether’s price doubled shortly after.” Rehman also predicted that 2026 would be an inspiring year.Lee calls on shareholders to increase BitMine’s sharesBitMine’s decision to stake an additional $259 million in ETH coincided with the Chairman of BitMine, Tom Lee’s proposal to shareholders, urging them to significantly increase the firm’s authorized share count to approximately 50 billion. According to Lee, this move is important for future stock splits in the event Ether’s price enhances the valuation of BitMine.Lee further explained that the stock price of BitMine keeps pace with ETH and establishes scenarios where Ether could reach an all-time high of $250,000, provided that Bitcoin records a new level of around $1 million. If this happens, the chairman stated that he is certain prices for BitMine shares will be too expensive for many retail investors. Get $50 free to trade crypto when you sign up to Bybit now