Ethereum Treasury Strategies Deepen as Bitmine Stakes $344M More ETH and SharpLink Deploys $170M on Linea

Institutional ETH staking accelerates as firms chase yield, supply control, and balance-sheet efficiency

TL;DR

• Bitmine has staked another 109,504 ETH worth $344.4 million, lifting its total staked holdings to 908,192 ETH, or about 3.43% of Ethereum’s circulating supply.
• SharpLink Gaming has staked roughly $170 million in ETH on Linea, advancing a previously announced plan to deploy up to $200 million into layered Ethereum yield strategies.
• Both moves highlight a growing trend among crypto-native treasury firms to actively stake and deploy ETH rather than hold it passively amid shifting crypto price dynamics.

We’ve just launched the all-new COIN360 Perp DEX, built for traders who move fast!

Trade 130+ assets with up to 100× leverage, enjoy instant order placement and low-slippage swaps, and earn USDC passive yield while climbing the leaderboard. Your trades deserve more than speed — they deserve mastery.

Ethereum’s role as an institutional treasury asset continued to expand in early January 2026, with two separate disclosures underscoring how large crypto-focused firms are leaning deeper into staking and yield optimization strategies. Bitmine, chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, reportedly staked an additional 109,504 ETH valued at approximately $344.4 million, while SharpLink Gaming confirmed it had deployed about $170 million worth of ETH into staking and yield products on the Linea Layer-2 network. Together, the moves point to an increasingly active approach to Ethereum treasury management as firms seek to extract returns while tightening circulating supply.

Bitmine’s latest staking transaction was disclosed between January 8 and January 9, following another ETH stake of roughly 19,200 tokens, worth about $60.8 million, earlier the same day. The back-to-back deployments brought Bitmine’s total staked Ethereum holdings to 908,192 ETH, a position valued at around $2.95 billion based on prevailing crypto price levels at the time of reporting. That total represents roughly 3.43% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, placing Bitmine among the largest known single entities participating directly in Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system. Company statements emphasized that despite slower overall crypto activity toward the end of 2025, Bitmine still accumulated 32,977 ETH during the final week of the year, signaling sustained conviction regardless of short-term crypto price index fluctuations.

Tom Lee characterized Bitmine as “the largest fresh money buyer of ETH in the world,” framing the strategy as both a long-term bet on Ethereum and a structural contribution to network security through staking. Beyond its Ethereum exposure, Bitmine reported holding 192 BTC valued at roughly $17.3 million, a $25 million investment tied to Worldcoin-linked treasury firm Eightco, and approximately $915 million in liquid assets as of January 4, 2026. Analysts following the company noted that its stated ambition is to reach control of about 5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply by the end of 2026, a goal that, if achieved, would further concentrate staked ETH among institutional players and potentially influence broader coin market cap dynamics.

SharpLink Gaming’s disclosure arrived on January 8, when the company confirmed it had staked roughly $170 million worth of ETH on Linea, a Layer-2 network built to scale Ethereum. The deployment forms part of a broader treasury plan first outlined in October 2025, when SharpLink said it intended to stake up to $200 million in ETH using a combination of native staking, restaking, and Layer-2 incentive structures. The Linea allocation is designed to stack multiple yield sources, including Ethereum staking rewards, restaking mechanisms associated with EigenLayer, and additional protocol incentives offered by Linea and EtherFi.

Custody for SharpLink’s staked ETH is handled through Anchorage Digital, reflecting an institutional focus on regulated, enterprise-grade asset protection. At the time of reporting, SharpLink’s overall Ethereum treasury stood at approximately 864,800 ETH, placing its total holdings in the low-to-mid billions depending on crypto price movements. While Linea’s total value locked has fallen sharply—by about 89% from its peak—the company’s decision to deploy capital there suggests confidence that targeted incentives and infrastructure upgrades can offset broader declines in activity. SharpLink’s publicly traded shares under the SBET ticker rose about 1.4% following the announcement, though the stock remained down roughly 37% over the prior six months, indicating that equity markets have yet to fully reprice the firm’s yield-focused crypto strategy.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.