Bitmine stakes $4bn Ethereum. Why Tom Lee forecasts price jump in 2026

Bitmine is staking almost $4 billion worth of Ethereum, or nearly one-third of its $13 billion in total holdings.

Chair Tom Lee said on Monday that the digital asset treasury firm “will be the largest staking provider in the entire crypto ecosystem” and projects annualised revenue at $374 million, or over $1 million daily.

Backed by top institutional investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, Bitmine is the largest Ethereum treasury in the world.

It “has staked more Ethereum than any other entities in the world,” according to Lee. It owns 3.45% of the total supply and targets 5%.

Lee’s bullishness comes as Ethereum trades 37% below its all-time high set in August. The overall crypto market is still reeling after a massive liquidation shaved $1 trillion off its total value. Cryptocurrencies now trade at $3.1 trillion, 27% below their October peak.

Meanwhile, stocks and gold have pushed toward new records in 2026 thanks to favourable macroeconomic conditions.

Gold, in particular, has benefitted from market uncertainty caused by the White House’s policies. For instance, it jumped on the back of the news that the US Department of Justice has issued subpoenas against the Federal Reserve.

DATs under pressure

Bitmine’s latest move comes at a perilous time for businesses that pivoted to bulking up their treasuries in 2025 in an attempt to replicate Strategy’s business model.

DATs have been under pressure in recent months as crypto prices have fallen. Many of the public firms that pivoted into becoming DATs are trading at lower values than their underlying crypto assets, putting the sustainability of their business models into question.

Despite poor market performance, Ethereum is finding solid footing on Wall Street. JPMorgan selected the network for its first-ever tokenised money market fund, an asset class valued at $9 trillion. Morgan Stanley filed for an Ethereum exchange-traded fund product earlier this month.

Bitmine purchased another $76 million worth of Ethereum in the second week of January, Lee said.

Price predictions

Lee has long been one of the most ardent Ethereum “supercycle” bulls. Earlier in January, he charted a path to $250,000 per Ethereum — a valuation of $30 trillion for the blockchain’s token.

“2026 augurs many positive things for crypto with stablecoin adoption and tokenisation driving to make blockchain the settlement layer of Wall Street, particularly favoring Ethereum,” Lee said.

“We continue to view the leverage reset post October 10, 2025 as akin to the ‘mini crypto winter.’” Lee said. “2026 is the year crypto prices recover and with stronger gains in 2027-2028.”

To be sure, Lee is not the only one optimistic about Ethereum’s price.

British bank Standard Chartered predicts the second-largest crypto will hit $40,000 per token by 2030, citing institutional adoption.

“2026 will be the year of Ethereum, much like 2021 was,” said Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research.

Standard Chartered said it expects the Clarity Act to be passed in the first quarter of 2026, adding regulatory certainty and thus boosting crypto prices.

Big vote upcoming

Lee is urging Bitmine shareholders to vote before January 15 to support his proposal to increase the company’s authorised shares to from 500 million to 50 billion in order to set the stage for a future stock split.

Bitmine’s share price jumped 15% after the proposal though has since lost some of those gains.

Lee argues that a stock split will be necessary because Bitmine’s “stock price follows Ethereum price,” and projects the company’s stock trading at $5,000 per share when Ethereum reaches $250,000.

Publicly-traded companies perform stock splits to lower the price of a single share. That makes it seem more affordable for regular investors to buy in without changing the company’s actual total value.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 1.9% over the past 24 hours, trading at $92,440.
• Ethereum is up 0.8% past 24 hours at $3,139.

What we’re reading

• Bitcoin price to surge as Trump pushes debasement trade ‘into overdrive,’ analysts say — DL News
• Bitcoin to $53m? Yes, VanEck really just made that price prediction — DL News
• Tether Freezes $182 Million in USDT on Tron — Unchained
• This DeFi Model Could Fix the Energy Crisis (And Power the Next Cycle) w/ Jason Badeaux — Milk Road
• Bitcoin faces fresh test as Fed feud with Trump escalates — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.