- Over half of Ethereum’s supply is now staked, locking ETH and reducing coins in circulation.
- BitMine’s 3M staked ETH could earn $176M yearly, showing institutional staking profits.
- BlackRock’s ETHB ETF lets investors earn staking rewards, not just track ETH prices.
Ethereum has hit a historic milestone as its proof-of-stake contract now controls over half of the coin’s total supply. According to crypto analytics platform Santiment, this marks the first time in Ethereum’s 11-year history that staking dominates circulation to this extent.
The PoS contract functions as a one-way vault, temporarily locking ETH to secure the network. Once staked, these tokens cannot be traded, though they will eventually return to circulation as newly issued coins when validators exit.
Santiment noted that the 50.18% figure relies on Ethereum issued before the burn mechanism, while about 120 million ETH remain actively circulating today. The surge in staking highlights growing interest from both retail and institutional participants.
Analyst Merlijn The Trader pointed out that Ethereum is adding privacy infrastructure with ERC-5564. This enables stealth payments that obscure sender-receiver links while maintaining auditability.
“Not privacy coins. Not obfuscation. Programmable privacy inside a public system,” he said. Consequently, Ethereum’s evolution now supports advanced transaction privacy without compromising transparency.
Staking Activity and Queue Dynamics
Currently, 36.9 million ETH, representing 30.41% of total supply, is locked in the mainnet. There are 966,134 active validators, while the staking queue nears historical highs at 3.8 million ETH, with waiting periods of 67 days. A record of 4.1 million ETH was observed on February 12.
Meanwhile, 6,112 ETH await unlocking, with estimated release times of just two minutes. BitMine’s treasury movements illustrate broader trends. The firm recently bought 45,759 ETH, boosting its reserves to 4.3 million ETH. Of this, 3 million tokens are locked, potentially generating $176 million in annual passive income at current yields.
Institutional Adoption and Funds
BlackRock has moved to capitalize on Ethereum staking via its upcoming iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB). The fund plans to stake 70–95% of assets depending on market conditions. The strategy aims for an average annual yield of 3%, differentiating itself from the price-tracking ETHA ETF.
Fees include a 0.25% sponsor fee, reduced to 0.12% for the first $2.5 billion, alongside an 18% cut of gross staking income collected by the sponsor and Coinbase Prime. Additionally, 5–30% of ETH will remain unstaked for operational liquidity.