Tom Lee's Bitmine expects to earn $400 million from ETH staking and Iranians rush to self-custody.

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Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee says the firm expects to generate over $400 million in annual income purely from

staking its eth holdings. Speaking at a shareholder meeting, the Wall Street veteran defended

the firm's ether treasury strategy despite $2.3 billion in unrealized losses. He also doubled

down on Bitmind's new $200 million investment in YouTuber Mr. Beast, calling the deal a no-brainer that could deliver

moonshot returns of 10x by connecting Ethereum to Gen Z audiences. Looking ahead, the company

plans to launch a mobile app and make aggressive investments in the tokenization sector.

As anti-government protests sweep Iran, citizens are rushing to take direct custody of their Bitcoin.

A new report from chain analysis shows a surge in withdrawals from Iranian exchanges to personal wallets just before

the government imposed an internet blackout. With the real collapsing from 42 to over 1,050

against the dollar, locals are turning to crypto as a lifeline. However, the data reveals a double-edged sword

since the regime is pivoting to crypto two. Address is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard

Corps now account for over 50% of the country's crypto activity, handling more than $2 billion

on chain in the last quarter alone. And in an interview with CNBC, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

explained why the exchange pulled support for the Senate's crypto market structure bill. Armstrong

alleged that last minute provisions were effectively a hit job by the banking lobby

designed to kill competition from crypto firms. He warned the draft would have been catastrophic

for consumers specifically citing attempts to block stable coin issuers from offering higher yields than traditional savings accounts.

Armstrong says he's willing to walk away rather than accept a bad law, noting the current text would have wiped out multiple coin-based product lines.

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