Ethereum validators are approaching a queue of nearly 1 million ETH

On January 3rd, BitMine Immersion Technologies recently added 82,560 ETH to the Ethereum staking system, worth approximately $259 million, pushing the number of Ethereum validators in the queue close to 1 million ETH, with new validators expected to wait nearly 17 days. On-chain data shows that BitMine has currently staked a total of 544,064 ETH, valued at about $1.62 billion at current prices. The company began large-scale ETH staking on December 26, 2025, and plans to expand its staking scale in the first quarter of 2026 through its self-built MAVAN (Made in USA Validator Network). Due to continuous entry of institutions like BitMine, the Ethereum validator queue has reached approximately 977,000 ETH, while only about 113,000 ETH have exited the queue. Currently, 35.5 million ETH are staked across the network, accounting for about 29% of the total supply, with an annualized staking yield of approximately 2.54%. Additionally, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee is pushing to increase the authorized share count to 50 billion shares to cope with potential surges in ETH prices, and has hinted that in extreme bull market scenarios, ETH prices could see significant upward movement.