Provisional figures come from days that have closed but whose inputs, such as the quoted price or a company's latest filing, can still be revised; the linked chart always shows the current value.
Staking
Active stake rose by 3.56M ETH to 43.74M ETH in the third quarter, taking it from 32.98% of supply to 35.82%. Deposits brought in 3.95M ETH: 2.02M ETH through new compounding validators, 1.45M ETH through new validators with an execution address and 469,484 ETH in top-ups of existing validators. The deposit contract has now taken in 91.57M ETH since staking began.
Fewer validators held more of it. Active validators fell by 4,760 to 881,139 and their average balance went from 45.4 ETH to 49.7 ETH; compounding validators, which can hold more than 32 ETH, went from 30.66% of stake to 37.24%.
Staking paid an average of 2.63% a year over the quarter and ended it at 2.57%, against 2.72% at the end of the second quarter: 2.53% from consensus rewards and 0.10% from execution tips and MEV on average.
The queue to start staking shrank from 2.91M ETH to 1.58M ETH, and the wait went from 50.6 days to 27.4 days. The exit queue went the other way, from 16,000 ETH to 604,304 ETH, a wait of 10.5 days against 7 hours.
Liquid staking protocols ended the quarter with 10.25M ETH of the active stake, against 9.37M ETH three months earlier; restaking through EigenPods held 2.30M ETH (2.24M ETH).
- Active stake30 Sep
- 43.74M ETH+3.56M ETH
- Share of supply actively staked
- 35.82%+2.84 pts
- Deposits in the quarter
- 3.95M ETH
- Compounding validators, share of stake
- 37.24%+6.58 pts
- Active validators
- 881,139−4,760
- Staking yield, quarter averagea year
- 2.63%
- Entry queue27.4 days wait
- 1.58M ETH
- Exit queue10.5 days wait
- 604,304 ETH
ChartsETHTotal Effective BalancePlusETHStaked ETH Share of SupplyETHETH 2.0 New Value StakedETHStaking Deposits by TypePlusETHETH 2.0 Total Value StakedETHCompounding Validators' Share of StakeETHActive ValidatorsPlusETHAverage Validator BalancePlusETHStaking APRPlusETHValidator Entry and Exit QueuesETHValidator Queue Wait TimeETHStaked ETH by Entity Type (Estimated)Plus
Fees, burn and issuance
Ethereum users paid 15,696 ETH in fees in the third quarter, 36.8% less than the second quarter's 24,835 ETH. The base fee burned 4,191 ETH of that, against 7,972 ETH in the second quarter, and validators kept 11,505 ETH in tips.
Net of the burn, ether was issuing at 0.87% a year when the quarter ended, against 0.84% three months earlier: 0.89% from issuance less 0.02% burned.
Rollups paid 5.8 ETH in blob fees, about $13,528; Base paid 1.8 ETH, Robinhood Chain paid 1.6 ETH and Arbitrum One paid 0.415 ETH.
- Total fees
- 15,696 ETH−36.8%
- Burned at the base fee
- 4,191 ETH
- Validator tips
- 11,505 ETH
- Net issuance, a year
- 0.87%+0.03 pts
- Blob fees
- 5.8 ETH
Holders
At the end of the quarter 61.1% of ether supply was in profit, against 27.9% at the end of the second quarter. That is 46.76M ETH, up from 21.90M ETH.
Ether that had not moved for a year or more made up 55.6% of supply, against 52.3%; smart contracts held 44.9%, against 43.8%.
- Supply in profit30 Sep
- 61.1%+33.22 pts
- Unmoved for a year or more
- 55.6%+3.29 pts
- Held in smart contracts
- 44.9%+1.11 pts
US spot ETFs
The US spot ether ETFs whose daily holdings files we read took in a net 1.13M ETH in the third quarter, over the 62 trading days in our data. Together they held 4.18M ETH on 30 Sep; the funds we read all quarter went from 3.06M ETH to 4.20M ETH (+37.2%).
The biggest day was 20 Aug, with +90,721 ETH; the heaviest outflow came on 16 Sep, at −64,414 ETH; by fund, ETHA took in 983,861 ETH and ETHB took in 137,917 ETH.
- Ether ETF net flow62 trading days, funds we read daily
- +1.13M ETH
- Ether ETF holdings30 Sep
- 4.18M ETH
Treasury companies
ProvisionalCompanies that file with the US SEC added a net 319,596 ETH in the third quarter, by the holdings they reported, and ended the quarter with 7.29M ETH.
- Company ether holdingsSEC filers, as reported
- 7.29M ETH+319,596 ETH
CME futures positioning
On CME ether futures, in the last CFTC report dated in the third quarter (29 Sep), asset managers were net short 60,051 ETH, from net short 152,742 ETH on 30 Jun; leveraged funds were net short 420,197 ETH, from net short 246,338 ETH on 30 Jun; dealers were net long 495,254 ETH, from net long 406,913 ETH on 30 Jun.
The CFTC publishes these positions each Friday for the Tuesday before. Asset managers are funds that mostly hold futures alongside other assets; leveraged funds include hedge funds running basis trades, which pair short futures with long ETF or spot positions.
- CME ether, asset managers net
- −60,051 ETH+92,692 ETH
- CME ether, leveraged funds net
- −420,197 ETH−173,858 ETH
- CME ether, dealers net
- +495,254 ETH+88,341 ETH
Prices
Ether closed the third quarter at $2,685, up 70.8% on the quarter.
- Ether quarter close
- $2,685+70.8%
ChartsETHPrice
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How this review is made
The review is written automatically after each quarter closes, from the charts CryptoKeyhole publishes. Staking and fee figures come from our own Ethereum execution and consensus nodes. Active stake is the validators' effective balance; the deposit contract's total is every ether ever deposited and does not fall when a validator exits. No one edits the figures, and each sentence only restates them.
A quarter is a calendar quarter in UTC. A level compares the last reading of the quarter with the last reading of the quarter before; a flow is the sum of every day of the quarter. A chart whose history starts inside a quarter gives no figure for it. Each linked chart explains its source and calculation.
The sentences describe the quarter's data and make no forecasts.