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More ether than ever is locked up, but the reward keeps shrinking
Bitwise counts a record 43.80 million ETH staked, 35.9% of supply, while the yield fell to 2.63%; Solana's slipped too.
A record 43.80 million ether, 35.9% of all ETH, is now locked up securing Ethereum, yet the reward for doing that fell to 2.63% from 2.81%, according to the Bitwise Staking Report published Oct. 20. That squeeze matters to anyone holding staked ether or a fund built on staking income: more coins are sharing a smaller payout.
Bitwise, an asset manager, sells staking products, including the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, so it has a commercial interest in how these numbers are read.
How it works
Staking means locking up coins to help run and secure a network, in return for a share of newly issued coins and fees. Bitwise said net inflows in the third quarter of 1.99 million ETH made it the sixth straight quarter of growth in Ethereum's stake.
The evidence
The same pattern showed up on Solana, as the chart below shows. Bitwise said 69% of Solana's supply was staked at the end of the quarter, at a 5.99% gross yield, down from 6.38%.
Source: Bitwise; chart: Le Coin
Bitwise said the number of Ethereum validators, the accounts that do the securing, fell from about 1.1 million to 881,000 as operators consolidated under Pectra, a recent upgrade to Ethereum's software, with the same ETH behind fewer records. Solana's count fell from 696 to 659 under cost pressure, about 30% lower than a year ago, the report said.
In Le Coin's view, the drop in Ethereum's count is bookkeeping, not an exodus: the stake is at a record while the number of accounts holding it shrank.
The objection
In Le Coin's view, the strongest objection is that a falling reward is not a problem but a design choice. Bitwise itself said both networks are far cheaper to use than a year ago and that this cheaper growth was "mostly by design." A firm that sells staking funds also has reason to frame shrinking yields gently.
What to watch
In Le Coin's view, the tell is whether Ethereum's stake keeps rising for a seventh quarter even as the reward falls further. If inflows stall, the yield pitch behind staking funds is losing its pull.
Sources
- Bitwise, "The Bitwise Staking Report (Q4 2026)," Oct. 20, 2026. https://bitwiseinvestments.com/crypto-market-insights/the-bitwise-staking-report-q4-2026 (accessed 1:10 p.m. ET, Oct. 20, 2026)
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