Bit Digital Stakes 138,000 ETH as Former Bitcoin Miner Pivots Entirely to Ethereum

Bit Digital, a NASDAQ-listed former Bitcoin miner, now holds over 153,000 ETH with 89% staked through Liquid Collective. The firm is winding down mining and converting proceeds into Ethereum. Staking generated $7M in FY2025, though the position is roughly 30% underwater.

Bit Digital, a NASDAQ-listed firm that built its business on Bitcoin mining, is abandoning that model and rebuilding around Ethereum staking. The company now holds over 153,000 ETH, has 89% of it staked through Liquid Collective, and is actively converting its remaining Bitcoin mining proceeds into more ETH.

On-chain analytics flagged a recent staking transaction of approximately 43,335 ETH (worth around $91.3 million at the time) routed through Liquid Collective. But that transaction is part of a much larger picture. According to Bit Digital's own monthly treasury disclosures, the company held approximately 155,434 ETH as of February 28, 2026, with roughly 138,269 ETH staked. As of April 2026, The Block's treasury tracker puts holdings at 153,546 ETH valued at $327.9 million.

From Bitcoin Miner to Self-Described "Strategic Asset Company"

Bit Digital's transformation is one of the more striking strategic pivots in the public crypto company space. The firm spent years building out Bitcoin mining capacity across facilities in New York, Texas, Kentucky, and Iceland. It now describes itself as a "Strategic Asset Company" focused on Ethereum infrastructure and AI/HPC exposure through its majority-owned subsidiary WhiteFiber (NASDAQ: WYFI).

The Bitcoin mining operation is being wound down deliberately. Active hash rate has been reduced to approximately 1.5 EH/s with a fleet efficiency of around 22 J/Th. The company has stated it does not plan to invest meaningful growth or maintenance capital into mining. Instead, proceeds from remaining mining activity are being converted into ETH for the treasury.

That average ETH acquisition price of $3,045, disclosed in the February 2026 monthly report, sits well above where ETH is trading now (around $2,100 as of early April 2026). The firm is currently underwater on its Ethereum position by roughly 30%, which adds a layer of risk to the strategy that the staking yield alone does not offset.

138,000 ETH Staked at 2.7% Yield Through Liquid Collective

Bit Digital routes its staking through Liquid Collective, an institutional-grade liquid staking protocol backed by Coinbase, Figment, Staked, and Blockdaemon. Liquid staking gives the company a tokenised receipt (LsETH) that represents the staked ETH and accrued rewards, allowing it to maintain some liquidity rather than locking the assets entirely.

During fiscal year 2025, staking operations generated 1,988.8 ETH in rewards worth approximately $7 million. In February 2026 alone, the company earned 313.9 ETH in staking rewards at an annualised yield of 2.7%.

For context, 138,000 staked ETH is equivalent to running approximately 4,312 individual validator nodes on the Ethereum network. That makes Bit Digital one of the larger single entities contributing to Ethereum's proof-of-stake security, though the staking is delegated through Liquid Collective rather than operated directly.

Why Liquid Staking Rather Than Running Validators Directly

The choice of Liquid Collective over solo staking reflects the practical realities of managing this volume of ETH as a public company. Running 4,000+ validator nodes in-house would require significant technical infrastructure, monitoring, and operational risk management. Liquid Collective handles the validator operations, provides slashing insurance through Nexus Mutual, and enforces KYC/AML compliance on all participants, which matters for a NASDAQ-listed company subject to audit and regulatory scrutiny.

The liquid staking model also means Bit Digital receives LsETH tokens that could theoretically be used as collateral in DeFi protocols or traded on secondary markets, though the company's public disclosures don't indicate it is actively doing this. The primary function appears to be yield generation on otherwise idle treasury assets.

The Underwater Position Is the Risk Nobody Is Talking About

The staking yield story is real, but it needs to be weighed against the unrealised loss on the underlying position. Bit Digital acquired its ETH at an average cost of $3,045. With ETH trading around $2,100 in early April 2026, the company is sitting on an unrealised loss of roughly $130 million across its holdings.

A 2.7% annualised staking yield on a position that is 30% underwater means the yield is not currently covering the capital depreciation. If ETH recovers above the acquisition price, the staking rewards become pure profit on top of capital gains. If ETH continues to decline, the staking yield provides a small buffer but does not change the fundamental exposure.

That is not a criticism of the strategy. It is the same risk profile that any company faces when holding a volatile asset on its balance sheet. But it is worth noting because the headline, a NASDAQ company staking $91 million in ETH, reads differently when you know the full position is underwater.

What This Signals for Institutional Ethereum Adoption

Bit Digital's pivot is notable because it represents one of the clearest examples of a public company treating Ethereum staking as a core business activity rather than a side allocation. The firm has restructured its entire identity around it, moving from "Bitcoin miner" to "Ethereum infrastructure participant."

Whether other public companies follow this model depends on how the staking economics play out over the next 12 to 18 months and whether regulators provide clearer guidance on how staking rewards should be treated for tax and accounting purposes. The SEC's treatment of staking remains an open question, and Bit Digital's experience as a publicly reporting company operating at this scale will provide data that other institutional participants are watching closely.

The company's fiscal year 2025 results were discussed on a conference call on April 1, 2026. With over 153,000 ETH on its balance sheet and Bitcoin mining in deliberate runoff, Bit Digital has made its bet. The staking rewards are coming in. The question is whether the underlying asset cooperates.