🚀 Ethereum Staking Shatters Records: 35M+ ETH Locked in Historic Bull Run

Ethereum's proof-of-stake revolution hits hyperdrive as institutional and retail investors pile into staking—wall street's bond traders weep into their 2% yield brochures.

The Lockup Effect

Over 35 million ETH now sits staked, draining exchange liquidity and tightening the supply shock screws. Validator queues stretch for weeks despite slashing risks—turns out people really will chase yield when inflation eats fiat for breakfast.

Staking's Domino Effect

Every locked ETH amplifies the network's security while pressuring remaining liquid supply. Exchanges scramble to offer synthetic staking derivatives (because why hold actual assets when you can sell IOUs?).

The merge was just the opening act. With staking APRs still outpacing traditional finance by 5x, Ethereum's deflationary engine keeps minting crypto converts—one institutional FOMO at a time.

Lido tops staking provider list as seven ETH stakers hold 1M+ ETH

Dune’s data revealed Lido was the largest staking provider, holding 9.02 million ETH through 282K validators. The data also showed that the amount of staked ETH declined by 0.65% over the past month, accounting for 25.6% (-0.65%) of the total market share.

The amount of staked ETH on Lido dropped by 1% (92.83K ETH) over the past 30 days and by 8% over the past six months, with a total of 833K ETH earned. 

Binance followed with a market share of 7.5% (2.65M ETH) of the staked ETH supply being held through 83K validators. The amount of staked ETH increased by 6% in the past month and 37% over the past six months, with 202K ETH earned.

Coinbase was third with a market share of roughly 7.4% (2.59M ETH) held through 81K validators. Overall, the market share dropped by 0.26%, decreased by 2.0% over the past month, and decreased by 27% over six months. Slightly more than 400K was earned.

Dune’s data also confirmed that ether.fi (2.3M ETH), Kiln (1.5M ETH), Kraken (~1.2M ETH), and Figment (1.03M ETH) completed the list of the top seven exchanges with over a million staked ETH. They had market shares of 6.6%, 4.3%, 3.4%, and 3.0%, respectively. The four exchanges earned a combined total of 359K ETH.

“Although liquid staking solutions suggest conviction is growing for Ethereum…People are maybe expecting the price to go up in the future, and therefore feeling more confident in terms of holding the asset.”

–Carlos Guzman, a Research Analyst at GSR

Breaking down staked ETH by category, the data showed that 10.2M ETH (29.2%) was staked through liquid staking, 8.7M ETH (24.8%) through CEXs, and 6.4M ETH (18.3%) through staking pools. Additionally, 2.7M ETH (7.8%) was staked through liquid restaking, while 6.8M ETH (19.6%) was staked through unidentified means.

Coinbase becomes Ethereum’s largest node operator

Anthony Sassano, host of The Daily Gwei, said that Coinbase’s stake made the exchange the “single largest node operator” in the network. CryptoQuant’s data confirmed that Coinbase was Ethereum’s largest node operator, holding over 11.4% of staked ETH supply through its validators. Sassano pointed out that while the staking platform Lido was bigger collectively, each node operator had a much smaller percentage share. 

Coinbase also reported that its validators had an average uptime of 99.75%, outperforming their target of 99% uptime without compromising security standards. The exchange attributed the performance to an upgrade implemented in 2024, which allowed the exchange to keep validators running while performing beacon node maintenance. Coinbase validators’ participation rate was also at 99.75%, exceeding the network average of 99.52%.

The Coinbase team said the company distributed its validators across several regions to help maintain a “truly distributed” and decentralized Ethereum blockchain. The team added that Coinbase’s validators operate in Japan, Singapore, Ireland, Germany, and Hong Kong.

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