Ethereum $ETH ( ▲ 4.41% ) just hit a new milestone that quietly matters a lot more than people think.
A record 36 million ethereum tokens are now dedicated to staking, aka the process where users lock up ETH to help secure the blockchain. According to on-chain data from beaconcha.in, that’s roughly 30% of Ethereum’s total supply.
At current prices, that staked ETH is worth about $119.3 billion.
The “Duty to Defend” Ethereum
Staking is basically Ethereum’s security system.
Stakers commit ETH to validate and secure the network, and in return, they earn staking rewards. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin has compared stakers to soldiers defending an army, since staking is what protects the chain from attacks.
And now, more ETH is being committed to that system than ever before.
Institutions Are Showing Up (Quietly but Aggressively)
This isn’t just retail users locking up coins.
The new staking record comes as institutional players increase their share of the staking ecosystem:
Ether.fi has added 276,288 ETH to staking over the past month
BitMine Immersion Technologies $BMNR (an ethereum treasury firm) boosted its total staked ETH from 659,219 to 1,256,083, a 90% jump in just one week
Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze said the increase is coming from institutional deposits, including large family offices and SharpLink Gaming $SBET, the second-largest ethereum treasury firm.
Want to Stake? Get in Line
Demand is now high enough that Ethereum staking has a backlog.
The entry queue currently sits at 2,348,580 ETH, and the estimated wait time to begin staking is now:
40 days
19 hours
That’s not normal behavior unless a lot of money is trying to get exposure to staking yield.
ETH Price Pops as Activity Surges
At the same time, ETH has been moving:
$38.5B in trading volume over the past 24 hours
price up more than 6% over the same period
So this is not just a nerdy on-chain stat. It’s happening alongside renewed demand and momentum.
Bottom line: Ethereum $ETH staking just hit an all-time high with 36M ETH locked, and the biggest takeaway is that institutions are increasingly the ones locking it up. When 30% of supply is staked and the line to join the staking party is 40+ days long, that’s a market signal.