ETH is in recovery mode, with the asset topping $3,250 in late trading on Monday, its highest level since December 12.
Ether has now gained 16% since the beginning of this year, which is not even a week old yet. It has outperformed Bitcoin, which is only up 6.7% since New Year’s Day.
“Ethereum is still cheap,” said analyst ‘Merlijn’ who observed that it is still in accumulation territory.
“We’re not in ‘Take Profit’ territory. We’re in Accumulation. HODL. Expansion mode.”
ETHEREUM IS STILL CHEAP.
Everyone wants to buy in the red zone…
But wealth is built in the blue & green bands.
We’re not in “Take Profit” territory.
We’re in Accumulation. HODL. Expansion mode.
Real conviction is built long before headlines arrive. pic.twitter.com/IhVoUHijDC
— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) January 5, 2026
BitMine Staking Surges
Selling pressure appears to have diminished, and demand is likely to increase, driven by a renewed interest in Ether staking.
In its latest update on Monday, the world’s largest Ether digital asset treasury, BitMine, revealed that it has already staked a whopping $2.1 billion worth of ETH in just two weeks.
As of January 4, the company’s total staked ETH stands at 659,219, an increase of 250,592 in the past week.
BitMine’s stake equates to around 1.85% of the total amount of Ether staked on the Beacon Chain, which is currently 35.6 million.
Its aggressive staking has caused the validator entry queue to surge to 1.3 million ETH, its highest level since mid-November. Meanwhile, the exit queue has fallen back to July levels, near zero.
BitMine is currently working with three staking providers as the company moves towards unveiling its commercial MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network) in 2026.
“At scale (when Bitmine’s ETH is fully staked by MAVAN and its staking partners), the ETH staking fee is $374 million annually, or greater than $1 million per day,” stated chairman Tom Lee.
Earlier in January, BitMine asked its shareholders to approve a massive increase in its authorized shares.
Grayscale Distributes Staking Rewards
In addition to DATs, staking demand is also coming from US spot Ether exchange-traded funds.
On Monday, Grayscale became the first spot crypto ETF to distribute staking rewards.
“Spot ETH ETFs didn’t even exist a year and a half ago … Now [they’re] making *staking* distributions to investors,” said ETF expert Nate Geraci.
“Wild how far the crypto ETF space has come in a short amount of time.”
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyfart said spot Ether ETFs were “doing okay considering the price performance of ETH, but they’ve seen 18% of their flows leave.”
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