Ethereum Staking Breaks New Highs as Price Slumps

More than 30% of $ETHs circulating supply is now locked in staking contracts, per data from Validator Queue. The percent of supply staked continues to break new highs this month, climbing over 30% for the first time at the end of January.

As of today, Feb. 17, data shows that about 36.9 million $ETH, or roughly 30.4% of total supply, is currently staked across nearly 967,000 active validators.

Supply of $ETH staked. Source: Validator Queue

Meanwhile, the price of $ETH rallied to new highs this summer, reaching nearly $5,000 in late August, but has since given back much of those gains, and is currently struggling to stay around $2,000.

$ETH 1-year price chart. Source: CoinGecko

The jump in staking, however, has also created a clear backlog for new validators. About 3.92 million $ETH is currently sitting in the validator entry queue, waiting to be staked, and the wait time for staking has reached nearly 68 days.

Validator entry and exit queue wait time. Source: Validator Queue

Getting out of staking, however, is finally far easier. The exit queue is empty, although withdrawals still face an additional eight-day sweep delay before funds reach withdrawal addresses. This fall, the validator exit queue also faced congestion, and in September it took more than 45 days to exit Ethereum staking.

The network APR, or annual staking rewards, currently sits at around 2.84%. As for players, Lido remains the largest staking entity, controlling roughly 24% of all staked $ETH, or about 8.7 million tokens, according to data from Dune Analytics. Centralized exchanges and centralized staking providers also account for a sizable share.

$ETH stakers by $ETH staked. Source: Dune Analytics

The data shows staking inflows rising through 2024 and early 2025, before turning negative later in 2025 as some participants began pulling $ETH back out.

Last summer, alongside $ETHs price, the total value locked across liquid staking protocols — which let $ETH holders stake their tokens while keeping funds liquid — rose to record highs above $85 billion, which extended through early October.

But after the Oct. 10 crash, liquid staking TVL began to drop and is currently sitting just below $40 billion.