Bitmine has launched MAVAN, an institutional Ethereum staking platform built on its existing validator infrastructure that targets custodians, exchanges, and institutional investors seeking U.S.-based validator infrastructure.

Scale: Bitmine holds 4.66 million ETH total, representing 3.86% of total supply. Of that, 3.14 million ETH is already staked, valued at about $6.8 billion at current prices.

Migration Plans: The company staked 101,776 ETH worth about $219 million to MAVAN in the past week and plans to migrate nearly all remaining unstaked ETH to the platform in the coming weeks.

Projected Yield: Once fully migrated, Bitmine projects annual staking rewards of nearly $300 million, based on a 2.83% seven-day yield.

Expansion Plans: Chairman Tom Lee said the company plans to extend MAVAN across additional proof-of-stake networks and expand into onchain vaults and post-quantum client development through 2026.

Custodians and exchanges, Bitmine's stated targets, mostly use Coinbase or run their own validators already. Fund-style investors looking for yield-bearing ETH exposure have BlackRock's ETHB, which wraps staking rewards in a regulated product they can hold within existing mandates. MAVAN has to compete with both. To carve out a real market, MAVAN probably needs to offer rates that beat ETHB and give clients a path into low-risk DeFi yield on top of base staking rewards. That's a difficult product to build.