Bitmain is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, having started staking a portion of its ETH assets worth approximately 1.7 trillion yen (12 billion dollars).
On December 27, on-chain analyst Ember CN reported that Bitmain deposited approximately 74,880 ETH (worth about 21.9 billion yen) into the Ethereum staking contract.
The reason Bitmain stakes its assets
This move represents only a small portion of the approximately 4.07 million ETH (currently worth about 1.7 trillion yen) held by Bitmain.
Nevertheless, this initiative represents the company's intention to shift its balance sheet management policy in the future.
If the company stakes all its assets at the currently estimated annual interest rate of 3.12%, it would yield approximately 126,800 ETH (about 37.1 billion yen) annually.
By adopting this scheme, Bitmain would become a revenue-generating vehicle linked to the Ethereum consensus layer. In other words, the company's valuation would no longer depend on asset price fluctuations.
The purpose and risks of Ethereum staking
However, this strategy also introduces new financial and operational risks.
Unlike Bitcoin stored in cold storage, staked Ether cannot be immediately liquidated even when the market is in turmoil, as it is subject to protocol-level withdrawal constraints.
Validators exiting the network need to pass through an exit queue, which may prevent immediate access to funds during market turmoil.
If liquidity tightens, this time lag may expose Bitmain to price volatility risks. On the other hand, risks that could originally be avoided if not staked.
This trade-off highlights the structural differences between holding Ethereum as a passive asset and operating it as productive capital within the network.
Bitmain aims to acquire and stake 5% of the total Ethereum supply as a long-term goal.
Therefore, the company is developing its own staking platform, the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), which is scheduled to begin operations in early 2026.
"We are continuing to develop a staking solution called the Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN). This will become an industry-leading secure staking platform, scheduled for launch in early 2026," said Thomas Lee, Chairman of Bitmain.
On the other hand, as a critical opinion, there are concerns that the aggregation of such a large amount of Ether by a single U.S.-based validator increases centralization risk. This structure raises concerns about undermining the principles of neutrality and global distribution that the network originally aims for.
Currently, Bitmain manages about 3.36% of the total Ether supply. Therefore, MAVAN may theoretically face pressure to comply with sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
As a result, it may adopt a policy of refusing validation of blocks that include transactions linked to sanctioned addresses.
