BitMine has committed 86.5% of its Ethereum treasury to staking, turning millions in ETH into a potential income stream while tightening the liquidity trade-off. Tom Lee’s warning about South Korea’s tech-stock sell-off raises a less obvious question: could pressure in equity markets force crypto investors to sell their ETH?
Ethereum's treasury trade-off was on display on October 21, 2026, when BitMine Immersion staked another 159,728 ETH worth roughly $390.6 million. BitMine's staked holdings would then stand at approx. 5.23 million, or 86.5% of its Ethereum treasury.
This major step supports its status as a major corporate holder of the asset but also makes liquidity increasingly important if circumstances worsen.
The latest deposit will push BitMine further into a strategy that balances long-term ETH accumulation with staking rewards. The company's staked holdings comprised approx. $12.78 billion according to the valuation used for the October 21 deposit.
The financial incentive is substantial. The rewards are capable of reaching $369 million if it commits its entire treasury to staking, compared with approximately $309 million per annum. Using these numbers, the additional deposit could then potentially contribute to approx. $10 million in annualised rewards, assuming the staking conditions and the value of ETH are taken into context.
Although Ethereum staking aids the network, it cannot always be liquidated as quickly as one would be able to if it were in an immediately available wallet. Validator nodes will encounter the exit process of the protocol and its timing will be dependent upon the network conditions.
On-chain data showed approx. 149,000 ETH to be in an exit, as compared to approx. 1.33 million to be in an entry. The reported wait was under four days for the exit and more than three weeks for the entry. These are network-wide estimates rather than a timetable for BitMine's entire position.
For BitMine, the distinction is important: treasury value and immediately accessible liquidity are not interchangeable entities.
Whilst Ethereum may remain a pillar asset in its balance-sheet strategy, continued falls in the market run the risk of testing its ability to remain flexible enough as it pursues staking income gains.
Tom Lee's concern is based around how losses in South Korea's technology stocks may be transmitted into cryptocurrency markets. The sell-off has, so far, been attributed to fears around competition in memory-chip markets and the health of the artificial intelligence investment boom.
Lee perceived forced liquidity from stock investors as a mechanism through which those exposed to both markets would need to liquidate their digital assets to meet the losses, or in meeting brokerage margin requirements.
Such selling pressure can apply additional strain against Ethereum, even in a scenario where the initial event involved equities rather than crypto-blockchain markets. That mechanism is a risk scenario, not proof that South Korea's equity losses have resulted in a new wave of ETH selling.
The distinction is crucial, for whilst correlation can increase between markets during times of stress, one must establish causation before jumping to conclusions. The wider market backdrop does, however, speak to the relevance of being cautiously positioned.
South Korea's KOSPI fell 7.57% to a six-month low on October 15 as chipmakers sold off. Lee's short-term assessment was "short-term pain" rather than a scenario of market collapse.
The Ethereum price showed signs of recovery on October 21, and came to trade at $2,468.57, up 3.55% over the day. As per TradingView data, an intraday range stood between $2,407.25 and $2,471.63.
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