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Ethereum Staking Breaks New Highs as Price Slumps

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The amount of ETH that’s being used to secure the network recently crossed 30% of Ethereum’s circulating supply for the first time.

More than 30% of ETH’s circulating supply is now locked in staking contracts, per data from Validator Queue. The percent of supply staked continues to break new highs this month, climbing over 30% for the first time at the end of January.

As of today, Feb. 17, data shows that about 36.9 million ETH, or roughly 30.4% of total supply, is currently staked across nearly 967,000 active validators.

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Supply of ETH staked. Source: Validator Queue

Meanwhile, the price of ETH rallied to new highs this summer, reaching nearly $5,000 in late August, but has since given back much of those gains, and is currently struggling to stay around $2,000.

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ETH 1-year price chart. Source: CoinGecko

The jump in staking, however, has also created a clear backlog for new validators. About 3.92 million ETH is currently sitting in the validator entry queue, waiting to be staked, and the wait time for staking has reached nearly 68 days.

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Validator entry and exit queue wait time. Source: Validator Queue

Getting out of staking, however, is finally far easier. The exit queue is empty, although withdrawals still face an additional eight-day sweep delay before funds reach withdrawal addresses. This fall, the validator exit queue also faced congestion, and in September it took more than 45 days to exit Ethereum staking.

The network APR, or annual staking rewards, currently sits at around 2.84%. As for players, Lido remains the largest staking entity, controlling roughly 24% of all staked ETH, or about 8.7 million tokens, according to data from Dune Analytics. Centralized exchanges and centralized staking providers also account for a sizable share.

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ETH stakers by ETH staked. Source: Dune Analytics

The data shows staking inflows rising through 2024 and early 2025, before turning negative later in 2025 as some participants began pulling ETH back out.

Last summer, alongside ETH’s price, the total value locked across liquid staking protocols — which let ETH holders stake their tokens while keeping funds liquid — rose to record highs above $85 billion, which extended through early October.

But after the Oct. 10 crash, liquid staking TVL began to drop and is currently sitting just below $40 billion.

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Crypto World

Stripe-Owned Bridge Gets OCC Conditional Approval for Bank Charter

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Stripe, Government, Banks, Stablecoin

Stablecoin platform Bridge, owned by the payments processor Stripe, said it had received conditional approval to operate as a federally chartered national trust bank under the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

In a Tuesday notice, Bridge said it had received conditional approval from the banking regulator, allowing the company to “operate stablecoin products and services under direct federal oversight” once fully approved. Bridge said the charter would allow it to offer custody of digital assets, issue stablecoins and manage stablecoin reserves.

“Our compliance framework already positions Bridge to be GENIUS ready,” said the company, referring to the stablecoin bill signed into law in July 2025. “Now achieving a national trust bank charter will provide our customers the regulatory backbone they need to build with stablecoins confidently and at scale.”

Stripe, Government, Banks, Stablecoin
Source: Bridge

Bridge is one of several crypto-aligned companies seeking a national trust bank charter from the OCC following the passage of the GENIUS Act. In December, the agency conditionally approved applications from BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos to convert their respective state-level trust companies, and conditionally approved Circle and Ripple for national trust bank charters.

Related: Bankers push OCC to slow crypto trust charters until GENIUS rules clarified

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According to OCC records, Bridge applied for a bank charter in October and was given approval on Feb. 12. Stripe acquired the platform in 2025 as part of a $1.1 billion deal for the company to support stablecoin payments.

In a Wednesday letter, the American Bankers Association (ABA) urged the OCC to slow its approval of crypto companies for national bank trust charters, saying rules under the GENIUS Act were still unclear. According to the banking group, companies could use national trust charters to essentially bypass oversight by US financial regulators.

“[…] ABA strongly encourages OCC to be patient, not measure its application decisioning progress against traditional timelines, and allow each charter applicant’s regulatory responsibilities to come fully into view before moving a charter application forward,” said the letter.

US policymakers still considering how to handle stablecoin rewards

As US lawmakers in the Senate advance bills to establish a comprehensive digital asset market structure framework, White House officials continue to meet with representatives from the crypto and banking industries to address stablecoin yield. Addressing stablecoins within the market structure bill, as well as issues related to tokenized equities and conflicts of interest, could be a sticking point for many lawmakers ahead of a potential vote in the Senate.

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