ETH held by active Ethereum validators reached 35.9% of supply at the end of September. Bitwise attributes lower yields to growing stake and weaker execution rewards, while Pectra enables operators to consolidate validator records.
ETH held by active Ethereum validators reached a record 43.8 million at the end of the third quarter of 2026. According to Bitwise’s staking report published on October 20, active validators held 35.9% of the ETH supply. Average annualized gross staking yield fell to 2.63% from 2.81% in the preceding quarter.
The Ethereum figures in the “Q4 2026” report cover July through September. Authors Kam Benbrik and Rafal Klich used Allium among their data sources. Bitwise also provides staking services, and the report describes validator consolidation work carried out for its clients.
Bitwise highlighted the staking record in its Ethereum post on October 21. The underlying balance measurement is from the end of September.
More ETH staked, a lower return per ETH
Net staking inflows reached 1.99 million ETH in Q3, bringing the first nine months’ total to 7.96 million ETH, compared with 1.31 million a year earlier. Active validator balances rose from 40.24 million to 43.8 million ETH during the quarter. Balances include rewards retained by validators. Bitwise measures net deposits separately and has recorded net inflows in each of the past six quarters.
| Measure | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Active validator balance | 40.24 million ETH | 43.80 million ETH |
| Share of ETH supply | 33.0% | 35.9% |
| Net staking inflow | 1.44 million ETH | 1.99 million ETH |
| Annualized gross yield | 2.81% | 2.63% |
| Mainnet transactions | 203.85 million | 199.32 million |
The yield decline was 0.18 percentage points, or 18 basis points. Bitwise calculates the quarterly average by weighting daily reward rates using active validators’ effective balances, the ETH amounts used to calculate rewards. Operator fees are not deducted. Of the 2.63% yield, newly issued consensus rewards contributed 2.53 percentage points and priority fees and MEV contributed 0.10 points. Consensus rewards accounted for 96.3% of total yield. The amount a user retains depends on the expenses of their staking method and any operator deductions.
“rewards are distributed across a larger pool”
Bitwise Staking Report
Bitwise attributes the lower yield per ETH to both a larger amount staked and weaker execution rewards. The estimated wait for a new deposit to become active fell from about 70 days in February to roughly 25 days at the end of Q3. The 25-day estimate covers activation of new deposits; withdrawals use a separate exit queue.
Pectra lets operators combine validator records
The report’s chart shows the active validator count falling from a peak near 1.1 million to 881,139. Pectra, activated in May 2025, lets operators combine several validator balances in one record. An operator can now manage fewer validator records. The chart counts active records rather than independent operators.
According to Ethereum’s MaxEB documentation, validators that opt into the new 0x02 type can maintain an effective balance—the amount used to calculate rewards—between 32 and 2,048 ETH. The minimum to create a validator remains 32 ETH. Consensus rewards can be automatically restaked when balance conditions are met; priority fees and MEV are paid to a separate execution-layer address.
In Ethereum’s example, consolidating two 32 ETH validators into one 64 ETH validator leaves the combined chance of proposing a block unchanged. The operator manages fewer records while total stake remains the same. Consolidation requests also have a queue separate from new staking deposits.
Bitwise says it began consolidating its Lido Core validators in September and plans to reduce approximately 8,000 records to 125. Bitwise says it has helped clients consolidate validators since June 2025, while Lido plans to extend consolidation to other operators.
The chapter beginning at 06:57 in Blockdaemon’s December 3, 2024 recording features Julia Schmidt and Freddy Tänzer discussing the higher effective-balance limit and reward compounding. Ethereum.org also publishes an edited transcript of the discussion. The conversation was recorded before Pectra.
Lower transaction fees weighed on rewards
According to Bitwise’s calculation, network fees and MEV totaled 18,210 ETH in Q3. Bitwise valued the total at $40.64 million using each day’s ETH price. The daily average fell from 331 ETH to 198 ETH. Base transaction fees and fees for data blobs are burned. Bitwise’s 18,210 ETH total includes those burned amounts alongside the priority fees and MEV retained by validators.
Mainnet processed 199.32 million transactions, 35.3% more than a year earlier but fewer than the previous quarter’s 203.85 million. Across the four categories Bitwise tracked—ETH transfers, ERC-20 transfers, decentralized exchange trades and NFT trades—the average cost fell from $1.35 to $0.45 year over year. In Q3, an ETH transfer cost $0.03 on average, an ERC-20 transfer $0.10, a decentralized exchange trade $0.89 and an NFT trade $0.76. Bitwise attributes the decline to block capacity rising from 45 million to 60 million gas units and less competition for inclusion.
Conditions of switching to 0x02: According to Ethereum.org, switching to 0x02 is irreversible. Partial withdrawals below the 2,048 ETH balance threshold must be triggered manually and incur gas fees. People holding liquid staking tokens such as stETH or rETH do not need to act solely because of the MaxEB change.
