Ethereum Staking Hits Record 43.80 Million Tokens as Yields Fall
Key Facts
The amount of staked Ethereum reached a record 43.80 million tokens at the end of the third quarter of 2026, according to Bitwise Investments, as yields on participating balances declined. Tokens allocated to staking accounted for 35.9% of total supply, according to the firm's quarterly report. Staking attracted net inflows of 1.99 million tokens during the quarter, extending an uninterrupted run of quarterly growth. The gross yield, however, fell to 2.63%, compared with 2.81% in the second quarter. The yield published by Bitwise is calculated before operator fees and is not a guaranteed net return for investors.
Bitwise attributed the decline in yield to a growing active balance and lower execution rewards, with rewards spread across a larger base of staked tokens. Blockdaemon said in its report that "more Ethereum was allocated to staking," while execution rewards fell, weighing on yield per token. During the quarter, the firm's staking rewards benchmark declined from 2.66% in July to 2.60% in September. Blockdaemon's average reward rate also fell from 2.67% to 2.61% between the same months. For the quarter as a whole, Figment said its average staking reward rate was 2.69%, compared with a network average of 2.63%.
The increase in the staked balance coincided with a decline in the number of Ethereum validators from about 1.1 million to 881,000, according to Bitwise. The firm attributed the decline to operators consolidating their validator records under the Pectra upgrade, without the corresponding balance leaving staking. Ethereum documentation sets the effective balance cap for a traditional validator at 32 tokens. That cap rises to 2048 tokens for a validator that enables reward compounding, according to the same documentation. This limit concerns a validator's effective balance, rather than an absolute cap on what its account can hold, a distinction tied to the mechanism for consolidating balances under the upgrade's rules.
Validators seeking to exit continue to earn rewards while waiting to leave the active validator set, according to Figment's report. Rewards stop after exit during the withdrawal availability delay, which lasts about 27 hours. They remain suspended during the subsequent withdrawal sweep, which takes from 0 to 10 days, according to the firm. Figment said "rewards stop only during the withdrawal availability delay and withdrawal sweep." In trading, Ethereum was priced at $2,400.12, down 1.01%, in an Investing.com update dated 20 October 2026.
The decline in staking yields extended to Solana, where the gross yield fell to 5.99% in the third quarter from 6.38% in the second quarter, according to Bitwise. Staked tokens accounted for 69% of Solana's supply at the end of the period. The network's gross yield remained above Ethereum's during the same quarter, despite declining from its previous level. In its modelling of a change to Solana's inflation trajectory, Blockdaemon uses the nominal base staking reward rate. That rate excludes maximal extractable value, block rewards and commissions, according to the firm's definition of the rewards covered by the model.
On upcoming upgrades, the Ethereum Foundation announced that the Glamsterdam upgrade would activate on the Hoodi network on 26 October 2026 at 17:42:48 UTC. The activation date on the mainnet has yet to be finalised, according to the foundation's announcement. In parallel, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal aims to increase capacity allocated to validator exits and consolidations. The proposal set 1 November 2026 as the deadline for final review. As for the change to Solana's inflation trajectory, Blockdaemon said in its report that it had no set activation date and that implementation would not cause an immediate drop in rewards on activation day.