Who stakes ETH now: treasuries and ETFs

6.66M ETH. That is the staked ETH reported by four public filers: BitMine and three US ETFs. It is 15.1% of the 44.1M ETH staked today (validatorqueue.com).

Meaning: one company and three funds now hold about one in seven staked ETH.

The holders that report

Public companies and ETFs must file with the SEC. Those filings are the primary source that ties staked ETH to a named holder. We read the latest filings for each.

Staked total today: 44,109,687 ETH, per validatorqueue.com on Oct 19, 2026.

How we derived the Grayscale figures. The Grayscale 10-Qs (ETHE, Mini) give the fair value of staked ETH in dollars, not in ETH. ETHE held 774,998.51 ETH worth $1,223.4M, of which $1,000.0M was staked. That is 81.7% staked, or 633,478 ETH. The Mini ETF held 854,642.67 ETH worth $1,349.1M, of which $1,116.7M was staked. That is 82.8%, or 707,433 ETH. This assumes staked and unstaked ETH carry the same per-ETH value, which holds for native staking.

The ETF figures are as of June 30, 2026. The BitMine figure is as of Oct 18, 2026.

BitMine: one company, 11.5% of stake

BitMine reported 6,041,481 ETH on Oct 18, 2026 (8-K exhibit). It says that is 4.9% of the 122.1M ETH supply. Of that, 5,067,309 ETH is staked. That is 84% of its holdings, and 11.5% of all staked ETH.

BitMine stakes through MAVAN, which it calls its own validator network, and staking partners. Its filing projects $309M a year in staking revenue at the current staked amount, and $369M if all of its ETH were staked. Those projections use a 2.58% 7-day yield, BitMine's own figure.

A single holder at this size is new for Ethereum. It matters for two reasons:

1. Queue impact. At 57,600 ETH per day of entry churn (256 ETH per epoch, consensus spec), 5.07M ETH takes 88 days to activate, even with no one else in line.
2. Operator concentration. Who runs those validators matters more than who owns the ETH. BitMine's filing does not list how its stake splits across MAVAN and partners.

ETFs: most of their ETH is staked

Grayscale's Ethereum ETFs began staking on Oct 6, 2025 (ETHE 10-K).

Their filings set targets and share economics:

• ETHB seeks to stake 70% to 95% of its ETH under normal conditions (prospectus). Since an April 15, 2026 supplement, 10% of gross staking rewards go to the sponsor, its execution agent and the staking providers. The fund keeps the rest (Supplement No. 1). It reported 86.9% staked on June 30.
• Grayscale ETHE and Mini were 81.7% and 82.8% staked on June 30.

The unstaked part is a buffer for redemptions. ETHB's prospectus calls it a Liquidity Sleeve. Exit queues show why it matters: on Oct 30, 2025, the exit wait was 44 days (validatorqueue.com).

Which operators run ETF stake is a separate question.

Holders that do not report a staked figure

SharpLink reported 886,725 ETH on June 28, 2026 (GlobeNewswire). That splits into 632,719 native ETH, 181,299 ETH as LsETH and 72,707 ETH as weETH. LsETH and weETH are liquid staking tokens, receipts for staked ETH. The release does not say how much of the native ETH is staked. We leave SharpLink out of the total.

Most staked ETH has no public owner. Exchanges, custodians, liquid staking protocols and solo stakers do not file per-holder figures.

What the beacon chain shows

The beacon chain does not show owners, but it shows how stake is set up. We pulled every active validator from a public beacon node on Oct 20, 2026 (finalized state, about 14:00 CT).

A withdrawal credential sets where rewards and exits go. 0x02 validators, added in the Electra upgrade, can hold up to 2,048 ETH and compound rewards.

Meaning: 2.9% of validators now hold 41.4% of stake. The average 0x02 validator holds 757 ETH.

Scale explains the shift. BitMine's 5,067,309 staked ETH would need 158,354 validators at 32 ETH, or 2,475 at 2,048 ETH. Fewer keys mean less to run and less to monitor. Consolidation, which merges 32 ETH validators into larger ones, had 671,638 ETH in its queue on Oct 20.

What this means for stakers

1. Plan for queue competition. One treasury purchase can add weeks to the entry queue.
2. Ask about 0x02. Compounding validators earn on rewards above 32 ETH without new deposits. Proposal odds scale with effective balance (consensus spec), so a 2,048 ETH validator proposes 64 times as often as a 32 ETH one.
3. Ask who runs the keys. Ownership and operation are different. Filings name owners. Few name operators.

Bottom line

Four public filers report 6.66M staked ETH, 15.1% of the network. BitMine alone holds 11.5%. On chain, 0x02 validators hold 41.4% of stake. Ethereum staking now has a few large, visible holders and a long tail that files nothing.

For institutions: the stakefish Multi-Chain Staking API supports 0x02 compounding credentials and batch validator creation of up to 100 at once. Read the API docs or request access.

Sources

1. BitMine Immersion Technologies, 8-K Exhibit 99.1 (Oct 19, 2026)
2. Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, Form 10-Q for Q2 2026
3. Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE), Form 10-Q for Q2 2026
4. Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE), Form 10-K for 2025
5. iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, Form 10-Q for Q2 2026
6. iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, prospectus (424B3, Mar 11, 2026)
7. iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, Supplement No. 1 (Apr 15, 2026)
8. Sharplink, GlobeNewswire release (Jun 30, 2026)
9. validatorqueue.com (data by pectrified.com), fetched Oct 20, 2026
10. Beacon API /eth/v1/beacon/states/finalized/validators, ethereum-beacon-api.publicnode.com, Oct 20, 2026
11. Ethereum consensus specs, Electra

Building staking into a platform? The stakefish Multi-Chain Staking API and SDK cover Ethereum, Solana and more. Read the API docs.

Stake now at: stake.fish/stake

About stakefish

Founded in 2018 by Ethereum and Bitcoin veterans, stakefish is the leading validator for Proof of Stake blockchains. With support for 20+ networks, we combine institutional‑grade infrastructure with intuitive dashboards, transparent reporting, and a spotless slashing record so individuals and institutions alike can stake confidently while strengthening decentralized networks.

Visit our website 🐠 | Telegram | X | YouTube | LinkedIn