Ethereum yield reaches 2.66%, exceeding 2.2%: key pledge points investors need to understand

Disclaimer: Content does not constitute investment advice. Trading involves risks—please invest with caution!

The nature and source of revenue of Ethereum pledge

In the Ethereum network, pledge means that you deposit Ether as a margin so that the verifier can propose and confirm new blocks. Verifier is a node with an independent key pair that participates in the consensus mechanism of the network. The agreement will issue new Ether as a reward to verifiers who work correctly; part of the margin will be deducted in the event of negligence. Any violation of the rules can lead to more serious losses, which is called Slashing.

The revenue mainly comes from three aspects: the new ether issued under the agreement, the maximum priority fees paid by users, and the additional revenue generated by sorting transactions within the block. For specific operation details, please refer to the official pledge document of Ethereum. For yields, the key is that the first two sources fluctuate with network load, and neither of them is guaranteed to be fixed.

Total yield of 2.66%: Actual network spending in October 2026

As of October 4, 2026, the total yield of the agreement is approximately 2.66% per year. This is the rate of return earned by the owner running the validator itself, because no share is paid to the service provider. This value is not fixed: the greater the total amount of ether pledged across the network, the smaller the share each verifier will receive; the lighter the network activity, the lower the fee income.

For comparison: On other public chain networks, yields are usually significantly higher, but as the amount of pledges increases, yields also fall. We conducted an in-depth analysis of Solana's situation at the end of August and pointed out that its pledge yield showed a downward trend. In this context, higher yields are often not a sign of quality, but the price of highly inflationary issuance of new tokens.

If you want to understand how service providers can benefit from this total revenue, you can refer to the platform comparison article we compiled. The gap between total income and net income is the key leverage you can control.

871,303 active validators and 35.8% of circulating supply

The scale effect explains why yields are so low. As of October 4, 2026, approximately 871,300 validators were active, and approximately 43.7 million Ethereum were pledged. Compared with a total supply of approximately 122.1 million pieces, this means that 35.8% of the chips in circulation are locked, that is, approximately one out of every three Ethereum is in a pledged state. The price at the time was approximately US$2,687.

When one-third of the circulating supply is locked in, newly issued tokens are apportioned among multiple participants. As a result, the high yields of more than 5% that were common in the early days of the shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) are no longer the current benchmark. People who use outdated data tend to overestimate returns by more than twice.

Service provider's commission: Why 2.66% ended up leaving only 2.2%

The difference was determined here. As of October 4, 2026, the two largest service providers reported the following data:

Lido：The yield on the liquidity pledge token stETH was 2.19%, with an average yield of 2.24% over the past seven days.
Rocket Pool: The yield of rETH tokens is 2.17%, and the base commission of node operators is 5%. The platform has 4,159 registered operators, of which 1,410 are active.

Compared with the total yield of 2.66%, approximately 0.5 percentage points remained in the hands of service providers and operators. On a pro-rata basis, this represents approximately 17% to 18% of the return. When a pledge is made on an exchange, the deduction ratio is usually higher because there are additional charges in addition to the service fee. We detailed these commission differences in our September analysis of 14 service providers.

There is often a misunderstanding: "The commission is deducted from the return, not from your principal." Therefore, a 10% cut does not mean you lose 10% of your Ethereum, but you lose 10% of your reward. At a total yield of 2.66%, this equates to a decrease of approximately 0.27 percentage points per year.

Four paths to pledge: independent operation, pooling, liquidity pledge and exchange

The path you choose also determines the yield, operational difficulty and risk. In Germany, there are four main common forms:

Solo Staking: You have your own validator and key, and you need to pledge 32 ether coins. You retain the full total yield and assume full responsibility for timeliness and key management.
Pool Staking: 将小额资金合并为验证器；由运营商运行技术，您支付一定比例的抽成。
流动性质押（Liquid Staking）：为您提供一个代表您质押权益并可独立交易的代币。
通过交易所质押：最便捷的方式；平台处理一切事务，但也持有您的密钥。

沿着这条列表向下走，收益率越低，涉及的第三方也越多。因此，决策的关键问题不再是“哪条路线收益最高”，而是“我愿意在我与我的以太币之间引入多少其他方”。

32枚以太币的门槛：独营质押今日的成本

运行自己的验证器需要精确的32枚以太币。按约2,687美元的价格计算，单笔头寸的质押成本约为86,000美元。此外，还需要一台不间断运行的机器、稳定的网络连接以及软件维护。如果验证器离线，则没有奖励，且可能面临小幅扣除。

因此，在实践中，独营质押通常是针对大额持仓者或希望亲自操作的技术熟练者的解决方案。对于其他人而言，2.66%与2.2%之间的差额，远小于验证器故障或密钥丢失所带来的潜在成本。这是一项冷静的计算，而非反对自我托管的一般性理由。

锁定与排队：退出需要多长时间

Pledged Ethereum is not immediately available. The exit process involves unregistering the validator and then entering a waiting period determined by the length of the queue. The queue can be severely congested: In August 2026, more than 2 million Ethereum were queuing, with a waiting time of approximately 39 days.

This means two things for planning: First, yields cannot replace liquidity; if funds need to be used within six weeks, no pledge should be made. Secondly, the liquid nature of the coin can really help here because the issued tokens can be sold on the market without waiting for the cancellation process. But in exchange, you need to accept discounts that occur when the market is under high selling pressure.

It is worth noting that waiting times depend on the network's queuing conditions, not the service provider's speed.

Confiscation, Contract Risk and Custody: The Risk Behind the Yield

There are three risks in pledge that are independent of price risk:

Slashing: For a verifier who issues a contradictory certificate, part of the deposit will be confiscated at this time. For pooling and liquidity pledges, operators bear this risk, but pass on the losses to depositors.
Contract risk: Liquidity pledges are based on smart contracts, and flaws in the code will affect all depositors at once.
Custody Risk: Users pledged through the exchange have handed over the key to the platform.

最后一种风险最容易规避。将非质押资产存放在自我托管环境中，不依赖交易平台的操作；硬件钱包的选择可参考相关对比文章。对于质押的以太币本身，只有独营质押才适用自我托管原则，因为密钥由您自己掌握。

没有任何一种形式能保证固定收益率。任何承诺固定利率的人，实际上是在利用您的质押本金从事借贷业务，其支付能力完全取决于提供商的偿付能力。

德国的质押收入：所得税法第22条及免税额度

对于私人投资者，德国税务机关将质押奖励视为服务收入（依据《所得税法》第22条第3款）。这些收入按您的个人税率征税，并在产生当年计入。该条款包含每年256欧元的免税额度：如果服务收入低于此数额，则不征税。一旦超过该阈值，全额金额均需纳税，而不仅仅是超出部分。

对于收到的以太币，自产生之日起开始计算独立的持有期。如果稍后出售，将适用《所得税法》第23条关于私人处置交易的框架，其中包括一年的窗口期。根据最终的行政指导方针，一年期窗口也适用于此前用于质押的以太币；早期草案中提到的延长十年窗口期并未成为最终规定。

In practice, this means: For each reward, you need to record the date it was generated and the price for that day. If it is distributed daily or weekly, hundreds of individual records will be accumulated quickly within a year, making manual management almost impossible. Which service providers record inflows and holding periods by position can refer to our comparison article on crypto tax tools. Only tax advisers can make binding rulings on your case, as classification depends on the size and structure of your participation.

Liquidity pledge: The difference between tokens such as stETH and ether

Liquidity pledge is the most widely used path and the most frequently misunderstood path. You hand over your ether and receive a token that represents your claim on the ether, whose value grows with the reward. The token is tradeable, but it is not Ethereum. Its price may deviate from the price of ether, either up or down, and during tight periods, small deviations will turn into significant discounts.

In addition, there is another tax point that is often ignored: converting ether into liquid pledged tokens and then exchanging them may constitute a disposal behavior depending on the structure. If you switch frequently between the two forms, tax events may arise that need to be recorded separately. This is also the reason to consult a tax adviser rather than follow your instincts.

When selecting a service provider, three points are more important than the yield displayed: the liquidity of the token in the transaction, the audit of the smart contract, and whether the rewards are journaled in a way that you can trace back.