Pectra upgrade spurs ETH staking surge, consolidating validators and cutting costs

We’re currently past the halfway mark of 2025, and the percentage of the total $ETH supply staked stands at an all-time high of 29.39% at the time of writing. This further inches Ethereum closer to having one-third of its token supply staked.

For reference, at the beginning of the year, Ethereum had just 28.1% of its total token supply staked, with it even declining towards a yearly low of 27.2% in March. In the three months since, this figure has rapidly increased to set record highs, surpassing its previous record high of 28.7% from November 2024.

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade likely catalyzed the trough and subsequent reversal in this trend in March. The upgrade lifted the maximum stake per validator from 32 $ETH to 2,048 ETH. This enabled larger staking providers to merge hundreds or thousands of smaller nodes into fewer, high-capacity validators, thereby significantly reducing hardware expenses and operational overhead.

Looking ahead, Cboe's March filings, which allow spot $ETH ETFs to stake their holdings, signal that large funds may soon route fresh $ETH into validators. Projected inflows into these staking ETFs would further boost the percentage of supply staked, which would enhance security but also concentrate power in a handful of regulated custodians.

This is an excerpt fromThe Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.