ETH: Staked ETH Total Return Index

Shown as its Oct–Dec 2022 sample; the latest readings and full history are included with Plus.

What one staked ether returned with its price and the network's average staking rewards reinvested every day, against ether's price alone; both 100 at the Merge (15 September 2022), when stakers began to receive execution-layer rewards too.

Why use it. Staking pays a yield on top of the price. The gap between the lines is what staking added over the years: the return a holder gave up by not staking. How to read it. The upper line is staked ether's total return, the lower ether's price alone, both from 100. The gap widens a little every day by that day's rewards; a log scale shows equal moves equally.

Calculation. Total return on day d = the level the day before x close(d) / close(d - 1) x (1 + APR(d) / 36,500), where APR(d) is the network-wide staking APR of day d from our own nodes (consensus- and execution-layer rewards over the active stake at the end of the day before, as in Staking APR (Total)) and the closes are ether's own daily closes at 00:00 UTC; the price line leaves out the reward factor. It is the network average with rewards reinvested daily, before any staking service's fee. Staked ether could not be withdrawn before the Shapella upgrade (12 April 2023), and before the Pectra upgrade (7 May 2025) a validator's balance above 32 ETH earned nothing unless it was withdrawn and staked again, so an individual staker's return differs. It starts at the Merge, the first day the total APR has both reward layers; consensus-layer rewards alone from the beacon chain's first day (1 December 2020) are in Staking APR.