- The Ethereum Foundation staked 45,034 ETH on April 3, 2026, bringing its total to approximately 69,500 ETH.
- The 70,000 ETH staking initiative is expected to generate between $3.9 million and $5.4 million per year, reducing ETH sales.
- Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the Ethereum Foundation still holds over 100,000 ETH in total and plans to reach its full goal soon.
Ethereum Foundation Stake Update: 69,500 ETH Now Secures Proof-of-Stake Network
The April 3 deposits, valued at approximately $93 million at current prices around $2,059, arrived in several batches of 2,047 ETH each. On-chain data tracked by Arkham Intelligence confirmed transfers from the foundation’s multisig wallet to the Beacon Chain deposit contract. The foundation now holds approximately 69,500 ETH in active validators, worth approximately $143 million.
The foundation announced the Treasury Staking initiative on February 24, 2026, following an update to the treasury policy adopted in June 2025. The stated goal was to stake approximately 70,000 ETH in order to generate a return without selling assets. This initiative was launched in response to ongoing community criticism of the foundation’s practice of liquidating ETH to cover its annual operating expenses, estimated at nearly $100 million.
The program launched with an initial deposit of 2,016 ETH around February 24-25. A second major phase, on March 30-31, added 22,517 ETH across 11 transactions, bringing the cumulative total at this point to around 24,623 ETH, worth around $50 million.
All staking rewards go directly to the EF treasury to fund protocol research, ecosystem grants, and daily operations. The foundation projects that staked ETH will generate between $3.9 million and $5.4 million per year, based on an institutional staking yield of between 2.7% and 3.8%. Maximum extractable value rewards could drive up yields.
The foundation manages validators using open source tools, including Dirk and Vouch. Dirk distributes the signature between several geographic regions. Vouch supports diverse Beacon and Execution client pairs to reduce the risk of client concentration. The setup uses minority clients and a mix of hosted and self-managed hardware in different jurisdictions.
Validators use Type 2 withdrawal credentials, which enable transferable balances and reduce the number of signing keys required. With a maximum effective balance of 2,048 ETH per validator, the foundation requires approximately 35 signing keys to manage its entire position.
On-chain records show that the foundation held approximately 102,400 ETH across some 14 tracked addresses before the April 3 deposits. It maintains holdings in other assets, including USDC, BNB and bitcoin, thereby preserving its financial flexibility outside of the staked position.
This initiative evolves the foundation’s operational model, moving from one dependent on periodic ETH sales, which can weigh on market prices, to one supported by the native yield of staking. Observers in the Ethereum community have widely interpreted this initiative as a sign of institutional confidence in the proof-of-stake network.
