During the third quarter of 2026, Ethereum staking reached an all-time high, though participants experienced reduced returns because staking rewards had to be shared among a larger volume of locked ETH.
Based on the most recent quarterly staking report from Bitwise, 43.8 million ETH—representing roughly 36% of the entire circulating supply—was committed to staking by the conclusion of September. Meanwhile, the average annualized staking returns dropped to 2.63%, declining from 2.81% during the preceding quarter.
The analysts explained that when a greater amount of ETH is locked up, the payouts get diluted over a bigger group, which lowers the return generated per individual ETH.
Institutional staking drives Ethereum inflows
Net staking deposits for Ethereum reached just under 2 million ETH throughout the third quarter, marking the sixth straight quarter of net-positive accumulations.
Corporate participation served as a major catalyst for these deposits. Bitwise highlighted Bitmine, a prominent Ethereum treasury enterprise headed by Tom Lee, which saw its staked holdings surge by over 1,000% from 410,000 ETH in December to 5.07 million ETH by September 27.
Newly minted ETH represented upwards of 96% of the overall Ethereum staking reward, with the remaining portion originating from transaction tips and miner extractable value (MEV).
During that identical timeframe, total revenue generated by the Ethereum network dropped to about $40.6 million, down from $63 million in the second quarter.
Solana staking hits record 69% of supply
Active staking metrics for Solana likewise climbed to a peak, reaching 440.5 million SOL, which accounts for 69% of the aggregate supply. Comparable to Ethereum, overall staking returns slipped by approximately 6%, with freshly minted coins generating 90% of those earnings.
The blockchain processed 14.2 billion transactions, representing a 45% increase compared to the second quarter, while typical transaction fees remained largely unchanged.
Transaction fee revenue climbed 49% to reach $76 million, largely fueled by activity in memecoins. Additionally, trading volume for tokenized equities expanded by 45%, surpassing $6.9 billion.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2026-10-20-ethereum-solana-staking-record-yields-fall-bitwise-q3-421414.
