Key Points
- Ethereum network records 1 million validators with $114B worth of Ether staked.
- Lido, Coinbase, and Binance are the top three platforms with the most staked tokens and validators.
The number of validators on the Ethereum network has reached an all-time high of 1 million. These validators have collectively staked 32 million Ether, which is valued at approximately $114 billion.
Data from Dune Analytics reveals that the exact count of validators is 1,002,400, with a precise total of 32,076,797 ETH staked. This amount represents 26.74% of the total ETH supply.
Leading Platforms in Ethereum Staking
Further data from Dune Analytics shows that Lido tops the list of Ethereum staking pools, with 30% of the staked tokens. This equates to more than 9.6 million ETH and 302,000 validators. Coinbase comes second with 14% or 4.5 million ETH and 141,000 validators. Binance ranks third, trailing Coinbase, with 39,000 validators who have staked 1.24 million ETH, which is 3.9% of the total supply.
Validators play a crucial role in the operation of proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains. They validate transactions, create new blocks, and ensure network security and consensus. Each validator is required to stake a minimum of 32 ETH. Lido holds the largest market share as it allows users to participate collectively, bypassing the need for individual users to meet the 32 ETH minimum.
Impact of Validator Count on Blockchain Security
An increase in the number of validators is generally considered to enhance blockchain security. However, Evan Van Ness, a venture investor and former Ethereum Chief Decentralization Officer, argues that there is already too much staked.
In September, Ethereum developers altered a Dencun upgrade code related to validator set size growth. This was deemed necessary due to concerns about the impact of a large validator set size. During a Holesky testnet trial, it was discovered that the testnet failed to finalize with 2.1 million active validators. Parithosh Jayanthi, an Ethereum Foundation DevOps Engineer, noted that network attestations were between 40% and 50% even when block proposals reached 80%. Attestations only increased to the 82% to 84% range when the testnet size was reduced from 2.1 million to 1.4 million.
Last month, the queue of validators reached 7,045, the highest since October 6. This backlog, worth about $562 million or 225,000 ETH, resulted from Ethereum’s restriction on the number of validators allowed to join the network per epoch. The queue later expanded to 9,000. This surge in validators may be attributed to restaking, which involves staking already-staked ETH to increase rewards. ETH staked in one pool, such as Lido, can be restaked on another platform for additional yield.
While staking enhances network security, concerns about validator control have been raised recently following a significant ETH withdrawal amounting to approximately $320 million.