Tom Lee’s Ethereum Treasury Firm BitMine Launches ‘Made in America’ Staking Network

BitMine Immersion Technologies debuted its staking platform for institutions on Wednesday, underscoring efforts to bridge the gap between Wall Street and digital assets.

The leading Ethereum treasury firm, which unveiled its “Made in America Validator Network” (or MAVAN) last year, is now enabling investors to earn rewards by participating in the process of validating transactions on Ethereum’s network, according to a press release.

The Connecticut-based company, which is chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, said MAVAN is designed in a way that could unlock broader participation toward securing Ethereum’s network. (Disclosure: Tom Lee is an investor in Decrypt’s parent company Dastan.)

Although the staking platform is globally accessible, BitMine said MAVAN’s infrastructure is based in the U.S. to cater to “requiring domestic validation” of Ethereum transactions. On Tuesday, Ethereum edged up to $2,200, according to CoinGecko.

“MAVAN represents a critical step in our vision to build one of the leading staking and on-chain infrastructure platforms globally,” Lee said in a statement, adding that the company plans to expand MAVAN’s support to other proof-of-stake networks in the future.

This year, the company also plans to explore opportunities with so-called vaults, which seek to maximize yield through various strategies in decentralized finance, Lee added. That’s in addition to developing solutions to address Ethereum’s quantum-computing vulnerabilities, he said.

Because BitMine holds 4.6 million Ethereum, a sum valued at $10.1 billion, Lee said that MAVAN would soon become the largest Ethereum staking platform in the world. As of Tuesday, the company said that it has staked 3.1 million Ethereum worth $6.8 billion.

Companies like Coinbase have long embraced staking as a way to generate revenue. In December, the exchange reported that institutional customers had staked $15.2 billion worth of digital assets through its platform. Meanwhile, individual investors had locked up $7.5 billion.

BitMine’s staking platform is prioritizing Ethereum, for now, but Coinbase supports eight digital assets, including Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, and Polygon’s MATIC (which is no longer Polygon’s native token). The exchange doesn’t report individual staking figures.

Decrypt has reached out to Coinbase for comment.

In the three months ended Nov. 30, BitMine reported nearly $1 million in revenue from staking. That performance was largely overshadowed by a $5.4 billion unrealized loss on its holdings, including the 196 Bitcoin that the company holds on its balance sheet.

On Tuesday, BitMine’s stock price rose about 1% to $21, according to Yahoo Finance. BitMine shares have tumbled 57% over the past six months, while mirroring declines among crypto-buying peers like Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.