Ethereum staking has cemented its role as a core part of the network, and a compelling opportunity for institutions. With over 34 million ETH now staked and new financial products on the horizon, Ethereum is entering the second half of 2025 with major momentum.
In this blog, we recap key trends from the first half of the year and explore what’s next for staking, institutions, and Figment’s role in supporting a secure and scalable Ethereum.
2025 So Far: A Year of Institutional Progress
The first half of 2025 has seen Ethereum staking continue to evolve from a maturing product to a mainstream institutional strategy. Notable developments include:
- Active Stakers: Ethereum now secures over 1.06 million active validators, with more than 34 million ETH staked (~28% of supply).
- Restaking expansion: Protocols like EigenLayer and Symbiotic continue to gain traction, enabling ETH to secure multiple services and potentially unlock higher risk-adjusted rewards.
- Ecosystem decentralization: Lido’s share has dipped below 30%, while restaking and new liquid staking providers have diversified the validator set.
- Pectra upgrade: Pectra, Ethereum’s largest network upgrade since ‘the merge’ to proof-of-stake in 2022, went live on May 7. Several improvements in Pectra focused on simplifying large-scale validator operations, making direct participation in network security more efficient, cost-effective, and attractive for institutions managing substantial ETH holdings.
Staking rewards currently sit around ~3-4% SRR, and institutional adoption continues to grow thanks to liquidity, improved risk management, and high-quality providers.
In addition, Ethereum, as the leading smart contract platform, holds a unique position within the digital asset landscape. Beyond the significant growth in staking, institutional adoption of ETH in H1 was also evident in other key areas, including a clear upward trend in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) on Ethereum by prominent financial institutions such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, and an ongoing position of dominance in stablecoin volume.
With this dominance underscoring Ethereum’s growing role as a foundational layer for institutional activity onchain, providing the necessary liquidity, security, and trust required for large-scale financial operations, staking represents an increasingly attractive way for institutions to benefit from the upside of operating underlying network infrastructure while receiving staking rewards on ETH holdings.
What to Watch in the Second Half of 2025
Several catalysts could reshape Ethereum staking in H2:
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- US Regulatory Activity: On May 29, 2025, the SEC provided official guidance clarifying that protocol staking activities do not constitute securities offerings. Regulatory Activity has accelerated since May 29. This ambitious timeline reflects the growing urgency among policymakers to establish regulatory clarity for digital assets, following President Trump’s directive to have the CLARITY Act on his desk by August. Figment continues to be a trusted partner helping to educate policymakers, on the front lines of these developments.
- Stake Any ETH Amount in the US: The May 29th SEC statement provided the clearest guidance yet that Sub-32 Eth staking is an “Ancillary Service” and not relevant to the Howey test, which could open the doors to Sub-32 Eth staking.
- Staking in US ETH ETFs: The US SEC is actively engaging with Issuers on staking inclusion in Eth ETFs and could approve a US Eth ETF staking as early as July.
- EIP-7251 and Validator Efficiency: Following May’s Pectra upgrade, validators can now accept more than 32 ETH, reducing operational complexity and further professionalizing the staking layer.
- Validator Set Optimization: With over a million validators active, expect more institutional players to consolidate under high-performance, compliant operators.
- Restaking Maturation: Developments in slashing risk mitigation, and app-layer integrations could make restaking more attractive for institutions.
- Liquid Staking Operational Improvements: Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade also introduced changes that can be leveraged by liquid staking networks to improve their security and operational efficiency, including more secure and interoperable options for initiating validator exits, improved responsiveness to staking demand, and expanded contract functionality. As they’re implemented over H2, these improvements may make liquid staking even more attractive to institutional participants, with their resulting access to improved liquidity allowing for ETH staking allocations to be increased
- Global Institutional Participation: As ETF markets expand and restaking gains regulatory clarity, expect increased engagement from custodians, funds, and allocators outside the U.S.
- Tracking the Fusaka Upgrade: The upcoming Fusaka upgrade (Fulu + Osaka) is expected to include EVM Object Format (contract improvements for builders) and PeerDAS (scaling via data availability sampling), laying the groundwork for cheaper contracts and significantly increased blob throughput without heavier validator hardware.
- Continued ETH Queue Fluctuations: As demand for staking continues to grow, driven by institutional entry, potential ETF approval, and restaking incentives, expect ongoing volatility in the Ethereum validator entry and exit queues. These fluctuations may impact timing for new stakers and reward smoothing, especially during periods of heightened inflows.
We anticipate ETH staking to continue to grow throughout 2025, especially as capital from ETFs and institutions seeks long-term, protocol-native rewards.
What This Means for Staking
Ethereum staking is continuing to expand with capital efficiency and regulatory clarity.
- Liquidity is now less of a constraint
- Institutions have arrived, with ETFs close behind
- Staking is continuing to evolve
- Network improvements in H1 focused heavily on improving large-scale staking participation, setting the stage for rapid adoption in H2
What This Means for Figment
Figment is built for this next era of Ethereum staking. As institutional participation expands, our infrastructure, security, and reporting capabilities are designed to meet enterprise-grade expectations:
- Multi-cloud, architecture with zero-trust access controls
- Direct integrations with industry leading custodians
- MEV-Boost activation and performance benchmarking
- Native access to staking solutions, including liquid staking, enabling institutions to access increased liquidity while staking, and restaking, for expanded DeFi participation
- Active participation in Ethereum devnets and client diversity efforts, including support for Pectra
Whether clients are staking directly, integrating through APIs, or restaking via EigenLayer, Figment offers the most secure and compliant path to Ethereum rewards.
Get Started
Are you ready to expand your staking plans for the second half of the year? Schedule a meeting with us to understand how Figment can provide detailed insights and strategies to help you maximize your staking performance and ETH network rewards while minimizing risk.
Ready to stake today? Sign up now to start earning rewards on Ethereum.
