Ethereum just cleared a headline-grabbing milestone — but not everyone agrees on what it means. What happened - On Tuesday Santiment posted on X that 50.18% of all ether (ETH) ever issued is now sitting in Ethereum’s staking deposit contract — a symbolic first in the network’s 11-year history. - That figure refers to the cumulative amount of ETH that has flowed into the deposit contract since staking launched around the 2022 move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Why critics say the stat is misleading - Analysts quickly pushed back, saying Santiment’s metric conflates cumulative deposits with ETH that is currently locked or out of circulation. - The deposit contract balance is a running total of all deposits and does not decrease when validators withdraw. Since the Shanghai upgrade in 2023, withdrawals are possible, and redeemed ETH are minted back to execution-layer addresses rather than subtracted from the deposit contract. - CoinShares’ Luke Nolan says the post is “inaccurate, or at least materially misleading.” He explains roughly 80 million ETH have historically passed through the staking contract, but only about 37 million ETH are actively staked today — roughly 30% of the current supply. That makes a big difference to the narrative. - Ethplorer’s Aleksandr Vat and data from CryptoQuant and Ethplorer support the active-staked estimate at about 37,253,430 ETH (≈30.8% of supply). Numbers to know - Total ETH supply (CoinDesk): 120.69 million. - Santiment’s headline: 50.18% of historically issued ETH has gone into the staking deposit contract (a cumulative number). - Etherscan/other trackers show the Beacon deposit contract balance as a cumulative figure in the ~77–81 million ETH range, depending on the data source. - Active staked ETH across validators: roughly 37.25 million ETH (≈30.8% of supply). - Major holders: Arkham lists the Beacon deposit contract as the largest holder (77.1M+), followed by Binance (4.1M), BlackRock (3.4M), Coinbase (2.9M). Bitmine holds 4.29M ETH, of which 2.9M is staked. What this means for Ethereum - The debate highlights how key metric definitions — cumulative deposits vs. currently staked amounts vs. circulating supply — materially change market narratives. - Proponents, like Vineet Budki of Sigma Capital, see the milestone as evidence that Ethereum is maturing into a “digital bond” — an asset increasingly held for yield and network security rather than quick trading. Budki also points to higher network activity (he cites a 125% year-over-year rise in daily transactions, doubled daily active addresses, and growing tokenized real-world assets, much on layer-2s). - Skeptics warn the recent validator growth has been dominated by large entrants (Bitmine, U.S.-listed ETFs, etc.), raising concentration and narrative-risk questions. Bottom line Santiment’s 50% staking headline drew attention to staking’s growing role in Ethereum’s economics — but it mixes cumulative deposit data with current supply realities. For a clearer picture of what’s locked versus what has merely passed through the staking contract, active-stake metrics (≈37.25M ETH, ~30.8% of supply) are the more meaningful measure. How these numbers are presented will continue to shape investor and market narratives. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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