Ethereum Staking Hits New High as Institutions and Lido V3 Drive Growth

Ethereum staking has reached a new all-time high, underscoring growing institutional confidence and continued innovation across the network. On-chain data from Validator Queue shows that total staked ETH has climbed to 36.6 million, accounting for approximately 30.13% of Ethereum’s total circulating supply. This milestone highlights how staking is becoming a core component of Ethereum’s economic and security model, particularly as large treasury firms and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) increase their exposure.

Institutional participation has played a major role in this surge. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported on Jan. 29 that Bitmine, led by well-known market strategist Tom Lee, staked an additional 250,912 ETH valued at roughly $745 million. This move brings Bitmine’s total staked ETH to about 2,582,963 ETH, worth an estimated $7.67 billion at current prices. According to Lookonchain, this represents nearly 61% of Bitmine’s total ETH holdings, signaling a long-term commitment to Ethereum staking rather than short-term speculation.

The timing of this record level of staked ETH coincides with a major protocol development. Liquid staking provider Lido confirmed that Lido V3 has officially gone live on the Ethereum mainnet. The upgrade introduces stVaults, which are isolated staking environments designed to give teams greater flexibility. With stVaults, users can deploy custom validator configurations and optionally mint stETH, while still benefiting from Lido’s deep liquidity and broad DeFi integrations. This innovation is expected to attract more sophisticated participants and further strengthen Ethereum’s staking ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Ethereum developers are also preparing to introduce ERC-8004, a new token standard aimed at enabling software agents to discover each other, verify identities, and establish trust across different systems. This proposal reflects Ethereum’s expanding role beyond finance into autonomous agents and cross-platform coordination.

Despite these positive developments, ETH price action has remained volatile. At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading at $2,633, down 3.86% over the past 24 hours and about 11% on the week. Still, the steady growth in staked ETH and ongoing protocol upgrades suggest strong long-term fundamentals for the Ethereum network.