Ethereum yield and fee revenue decline as staking reaches record high

• A record 43.8 million ETH was staked on Ethereum in Q3, equivalent to 35.9% of total supply, as annualised yields declined to 2.63%.
• With average daily revenue down 40.2% to 198 ETH, ETH earned $40.64 million from fees and MEV in Q3.
• Quarterly transaction numbers on Ethereum totalled 199.32 million

A record 43.8 million ETH was staked on Ethereum (ETH) in Q3 2026, according to crypto asset manager Bitwise, even as annualised staking yields declined.

Ethereum staking reaches record high as yields fall

By the quarter’s close, staked Ether represented 35.9% of the asset’s total supply, Bitwise said on Tuesday in its Q4 staking report. A sixth consecutive quarter of growth saw net staking inflows total 1.99 million ETH.

Despite the increase in staking activity, ETH’s gross annualised staking yield fell to 2.63% in Q3, following a decline from 2.91% in Q1 to 2.81% in Q2.

A growing pool of staked ETH, together with reduced execution rewards from transaction fees and maximal extractable value (MEV), explains the fall, according to the report.

Bitwise explained: “As more ETH is staked, rewards are distributed across a larger pool, reducing the yield earned on each ETH,”

Of the Q3 yield, 2.53 percentage points came from consensus rewards generated through protocol issuance, representing 96.3% of the total. Just 0.10 percentage points came from priority fees and MEV.

Fees and MEV brought the blockchain 18,210 ETH in Q3 revenue, valued at roughly $40.64 million. At 198 ETH, average daily revenue was down 40.2% from Q2’s 331 ETH, reaching its lowest level since Q1 2025.

Quarterly transactions on Ethereum totalled 199.32 million. This was marginally below the 203.85 million recorded in Q2, although transaction volume rose 35.3% year on year.

Across four common transaction types, average costs fell to $0.45 from $1.35, a 67% year-on-year decline. These comprised ETH transfers, ERC-20 transfers, decentralised exchange trades and non-fungible token trades.

Greater network capacity partly explained the fall in costs, Bitwise said, as it eased competition for blockspace and exerted downward pressure on transaction fees.

The report noted: “The additional activity has not yet translated into stronger value capture,”

Declining staking returns extended beyond Ethereum to other major proof-of-stake networks.

By the end of the third quarter, 69% of Solana’s supply was staked, while its gross annualised yield had fallen from 6.38% to 5.99%.

A 46% staking ratio and a 4.87% yield were recorded on NEAR. On Hyperliquid, 436 million HYPE was staked, producing a gross annualised yield of 2.24%.

The number of Solana validators fell during the quarter from 696 to 659, leaving the count approximately 30% below its level a year earlier. Cost pressures were behind the reduction, according to Bitwise.

Tokenised equities gain ground across crypto networks

Outside staking, expanding activity in tokenised markets was another focus of the report.

A 45% increase took tokenised equity volume on Solana to $6.93 billion. Meanwhile, 36.5% of perpetual futures trading volume on Hyperliquid came from non-crypto markets.

Strong growth was also evident on Robinhood Chain, where average daily stock-token volume increased 22-fold between July and September. In its first quarter, the network earned more than $50 million in fees, exceeding the fees generated by its host Ethereum mainnet.

At the time of writing, the crypto market has gained 1.6% over the past 24 hours.