BitMine Immersion Technologies used Executive Chairman Tom Lee’s September 30, 2026, presentation in Seoul at Korea Blockchain Week to promote its Ethereum treasury, ETH staking strategy and MAVAN validator network. The scale is substantial, but the investment case turns on a tougher question: has MAVAN demonstrated an institutional business beyond putting BitMine’s own ETH to work?
The company disclosed the presentation in an Item 7.01 Regulation FD filing, attaching it as Exhibit 99.1 to its Form 8-K. The filing says the information, including the exhibit, is not deemed filed for Section 18 of the Exchange Act.
The presentation builds on Lee’s public thesis about Ethereum and the company’s accumulating treasury, which has also featured in the discussion of his Ethereum position.
THE BLOCK: Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said at Korea Blockchain Week 2026 that the upcoming bull market could be the largest cycle yet. pic.twitter.com/Vm9ywwNPWX
— The Block (@TheBlockCo) September 30, 2026
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Korea Blockchain Week: Staking Economics Need More Disclosure
BitMine reported 6.0 million ETH, 212 BTC, $714 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, and a $105 million stake in Eightco Holdings. It put those combined crypto, cash, marketable securities, and “moonshot” holdings at $17.1 billion and said its ETH represented 4.9% of the 122.1 million-token supply, with a goal of acquiring 5%.
The stake runs through MAVAN, the Made in America Validator Network, a staking platform BitMine built for its treasury and now offers to institutions, custodians, and partners.
Lee said annualized staking revenue is now projected at $357 million, with BitMine’s own operations earning a 7-day annualized yield of 2.62%. If all its ETH were staked, the company projects $421 million in yearly rewards. That assumes the current yield holds, so it is not a guaranteed return.
Lee also believes a crypto bull market began in late June, driven by a rotation from AI back to crypto, stronger fundamentals around tokenization and AI, and the end of the four-year cycle. That remains his view, not a verified forecast. Likewise, his expectation that institutions will add crypto exposure does not prove that they will use MAVAN.
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BitMine’s buying spree still gives investors large ETH exposure. But a growing treasury does not show how much ETH each share actually represents.
Several factors shape shareholder returns: share issuance, purchase prices, corporate costs, and BMNR’s valuation against its net asset value. That last point matters now. BMNR trades at an mNAV of about 0.94x, meaning the stock is valued below the ETH it holds. The company also added about 3.2 million shares this week, bringing the total to 608.2 million. The ETH balance alone does not answer these questions.
Future filings will need to show more about MAVAN. Investors need data on outside institutional customers, client assets, recurring revenue, fees, and staking performance.
BitMine says fully staking its ETH through MAVAN and partners is the next step toward its $421 million projection. Still, a bigger treasury is no substitute for proof of a diversified service business.
For now, Korea Blockchain Week showcased a credible ambition backed by a massive balance sheet. It did not show a proven institutional platform. The clearest confirmation would be recurring income from customers beyond BitMine itself. That would show MAVAN can turn staking infrastructure into a real business, not just a tool for the treasury that built it.
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