Ethereum Staking
Ethereum uses Proof of Stake consensus since The Merge (September 2022). Validators stake 32 ETH to participate in block validation.
Active Validators
2,561,472
Approx. based on deposit contract balance
Total ETH Staked
81.97M ETH
Balance of ETH2 Deposit Contract
Current Staking APY
~3–4%
Varies with total staked ETH
How Ethereum Staking Works
Deposit 32 ETH
Send 32 ETH to the deposit contract to activate a validator
Run a Validator Node
Run execution + consensus clients (e.g., Geth + Lighthouse)
Propose & Attest Blocks
Earn rewards for correctly proposing and attesting to blocks
Slashing Risk
Malicious or faulty validators lose part of their stake
Liquid Staking
Use Lido (stETH) or Rocket Pool (rETH) to stake without 32 ETH
Withdrawals
Available since the Shanghai upgrade (April 2023)
ETH2 Deposit Contract
The canonical one-way deposit contract deployed on the Ethereum mainnet. All validator deposits are made here.