Ethereum breaks $120bn staking milestone with price anticipated to reach $40,000

January 15, 2026

Ethereum Reaches New Staking Milestone

Nearly 30% of Ethereum’s circulating supply is currently locked.
Bitmine has staked an additional $600 million, bringing its total stake to $6 billion.
Tom Lee urged shareholders to vote for a stock split before the upcoming meeting.

Ethereum has hit a significant milestone, with 30% of its circulating tokens staked. Analysts are optimistic about the future price of the second-largest cryptocurrency.

The amount of staked Ether is valued at around $120 billion, according to ValidatorQueue data.

Bitmine has positioned itself as a leading proponent of proof-of-stake mechanisms, recently locking in $600 million in Ethereum. With this move, the digital asset firm now manages about $6 billion in cryptocurrencies, nearly half of its total holdings of $13 billion.

This milestone coincides with an 8% increase in Ethereum’s price over the past week, trading at $3,359 at the time of this report. However, it’s still down 32% from its all-time high of $4,950 achieved in August.

The cryptocurrency market is currently valued at $3.3 trillion, which is about 25% lower than its peak in October. In contrast, other assets like stocks and gold are approaching record highs as they look towards 2026.

Despite Ethereum’s underwhelming price performance relative to other assets, enthusiasm on Wall Street remains high for the blockchain network.

JP Morgan has chosen Ethereum for its first tokenized money market fund, tapping into a $9 trillion asset class. Similarly, Morgan Stanley submitted proposals for Ethereum exchange-traded funds earlier this month.

Standard Chartered has predicted this month that Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin, forecasting that its price could reach $40,000 per token by 2030.

Bitmine Votes

Backed by institutional heavyweights like Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, Bitmine has emerged as the largest Ethereum vault, controlling over 3% of the total supply.

Chairman Tom Lee stated that Bitmine aims to become the biggest staking provider in the crypto sector, with a daily revenue expectation of more than $1 million from Ethereum staking.

Lee has called on all Bitmine shareholders to cast their votes by the January 15 meeting to support his proposal to raise the company’s authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion, prepping for a future stock split.

According to Bloomberg, Bitmine’s stock increased by 5% on Wednesday.

Lee believes the stock split is essential, asserting that Bitmine’s stock will mirror the price of Ethereum and anticipates it trading at $5,000 per share once Ethereum hits $250,000.

Stock splits are typically executed by publicly traded companies to make shares more accessible for retail investors without affecting the company’s overall market value.

“Don’t Fight Washington”

Lee, also the head of research at Fundstrat, remarked that this situation is significant. He warns investors not to clash with the White House in his recent video aimed at clients.

According to Lee, “Washington is picking winners and losers,” and this dynamic outweighs broader economic concerns.

He cites traditional credit card companies, the Federal Reserve, and institutional mortgage buyers as major losers amid President Trump’s credit interest rate cap and political pressure on the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, sectors like energy, technology, and cryptocurrency stand to benefit.

Market Movements

Bitcoin is currently priced at $96,917, reflecting a 1.9% increase over the past 24 hours.
Ethereum has experienced a 1% increase in the same timeframe, reaching $3,359.