ETH staking reaches 27.95% as liquid restaking protocols experience exponential growth

Quick Take

  • The percentage of the ETH supply staked recently reached an all-time high of 27.95%.
  • The following is an excerpt from The Block’s Data and Insights newsletter.

The percentage of the ETH supply staked reached an all-time high of 27.95%. This comes after a brief dip two weeks ago, when it dropped by 0.76 percentage points in a single day on July 21, from 27.58% to 26.82%.

Since then, this figure has not only rebounded but surpassed previous highs. Notably, since the launch of the ETH ETFs, the percentage of ETH staked has increased by 1.9%.

What's particularly interesting is how, similar to the trend in the Bitcoin network’s transaction count discussed in the previous section, ETH’s staking trend has decoupled from its price performance.

Since ETH hit highs of around $4,090 in March, its price has dropped by approximately 30% to $2,900 at the time of writing. However, during this same period, the percentage of ETH staked has increased by around 2%, from 26% to nearly 28%.

With ETH’s current supply of approximately 120.25 million, that 2% increase in staked ETH is currently valued at roughly $7 billion.

A direct result of this consistent increase in staked ETH is the impact on liquid staking and restaking protocols.

The TVL of the liquid staking sector has increased by 60% year to date, from $32.68 billion to $52.27 billion at the time of writing. Even more impressively, the TVL of the liquid restaking sector has grown by over 1,200% in the same period, from $1.34 billion to $18.65 billion.

Breaking down some of the top performers, Eigenlayer has seen its TVL grow more than tenfold, from $1.4 billion at the beginning of 2024 to $15.97 billion by the end of July.

Meanwhile, Renzo and EtherFi have experienced exponential growth. The former’s TVL multiplied by about 158x, growing from $10.45 million to $1.65 billion. EtherFi has seen a 62x increase, with its TVL jumping from $98.24 million to $6.14 billion.

Interestingly, LDO, the governance token of Lido Finance, the largest ETH liquid staking protocol, has presented a curious case. The LDO token has not benefitted from an increase in the percentage of ETH staked, with the price of LDO having fallen by 50% in 2024 so far, losing approximately $930 million in market capitalization. This is likely due to LDO not receiving any direct value from the Lido protocol's operations or growth, as it is a governance token with no fee switch, buybacks, or any form of direct value accrual mechanism.

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


Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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Jason Shubnell at
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