$ETH BitMine Stakes $259 Million More ETH, Entry Queue Nears 1 Million
#BitMine Immersion Technologies deposited another 82,560 
$ETH worth roughly $259 million to Ethereum's staking system, intensifying congestion in the network's validator entry queue as institutional demand for yield builds. The Ether #treasury firm sent multiple large deposits to Ethereum's BatchDeposit contract on Sunday, according to Arkham data.
BitMine's total staked 
$ETH has climbed to 544,064 Ether, valued at approximately $1.62 billion at current prices. The company first started staking Ether on Dec. 26, transferring nearly $219 million worth of ETH to staking-related contracts on the #Ethereum network, according to on-chain analyst Lookonchain.
The aggressive staking push has helped drive Ethereum's validator entry queue to roughly 977,000 
$ETH . New validators face an estimated wait time of nearly 17 days to become active, according to blockchain explorer Ethereum Validator Queue. Exit activity remains comparatively light, with just over 113,000 
$ETH waiting to be withdrawn.
BitMine revealed plans in November to begin staking Ether in the first quarter of 2026 through an internal infrastructure known as the Made-in-America Validator Network (MAVAN). The company selected three institutional staking providers for an initial pilot, deploying a limited amount of 
$ETH to evaluate performance, security, and operational reliability before expanding the program.
More than 35.5 million 
$ETH , or roughly 29% of total supply, is now staked, according to Ethereum's network data. The annualized #staking yield stands near 2.54%.
Abdul Rehman, head of #DeFi at layer-1 blockchain Monad, said in an X post last week that the last time the entry and exit queue flipped in June, Ether doubled in price shortly after. He predicted that 2026 is “going to be a movie.”
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