Tom Lee’s firm is the largest public holder of ETH, and the second largest digital asset treasury company.
BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) has officially launched MAVAN — the Made in America Validator Network — its proprietary institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform, the company announced on Wednesday, March 25.
The move marks a major operational milestone in BitMine’s pivot from Bitcoin miner to what Chairman Tom Lee is calling “one of the leading staking and on-chain infrastructure platforms globally,” per the release.
MAVAN is designed to serve institutions and custodians requiring U.S.-based validation, with a globally distributed architecture for international clients. Per the release, via MAVAN, BitMine will eventually expand staking services for other proof-of-stake blockchains beyond Ethereum, as well as provide crypto infrastructure services.
BitMine currently has 3.14 million ETH staked, making it one of the largest entities staking the second largest cryptocurrency. As of the past week, the firm has staked about 101.7K ETH via MAVAN, and said it plans to eventually scale to staking “nearly all of Bitmine’s remaining unstaked ETH.”
Per BitMine’s latest report on Monday, the firm holds a total of over 4.6 million ETH. Once its remaining holdings are fully onboarded to MAVAN in the coming weeks, BitMine projects annual staking rewards approaching $300 million at a 2.83% yield, according to today’s press release.
As The Defiant previously reported, the company’s aggressive ETH accumulation has been backed by institutional heavyweights including ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and DCG, all aligned behind the firm’s goal of owning 5% of all ETH in circulation. BitMine’s current holdings represent 3.86% of the ETH supply.
The launch arrives as the broader Ethereum staking ecosystem continues to see record participation, with over 30% of ETH’s circulating supply now locked in staking contracts. ETH is trading around $2,160 today, well below its August 2025 peak of nearly $5,000.
As The Defiant has reported, Lido remains by far the dominant Ethereum staking entity, with approximately 8.9 million ETH staked across its liquid staking protocol, per data from Dune Analytics.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/tradfi-and-fintech/bitmine-launches-proprietary-ethereum-validator-network-mavan
