The Staking Dominance
I was looking at the latest Ethereum holder data, and honestly, the numbers are pretty striking. The ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract now holds over 80.8 million ETH. That’s about 67% of the entire supply. Think about that for a second – two-thirds of all Ethereum is locked up securing the proof-of-stake network.
When you do the math, that’s roughly $160.4 billion worth of ETH at current prices. The percentage has actually been climbing too – up from 63.2% just a few weeks ago. Every ETH that gets staked is one less token circulating on exchanges, which has some real implications for liquidity and price pressure.
Exchange Holdings and Traditional Finance
Centralized exchanges come next in terms of holdings. Between the top twenty platforms, they control over 15.6 million ETH. That’s about 12.9% of total supply. But here’s what’s interesting – it’s not just the usual crypto exchanges.
Robinhood holds 1.57 million ETH, which surprised me a bit. DBS Bank from Singapore and Revolut from the UK are also on the list. These aren’t crypto-native companies, which tells you something about how traditional finance is getting involved.
Institutional Players and Layer 2
BlackRock sits at number three overall with 3.17 million ETH, backing their Ethereum ETF. That’s around $6.3 billion worth. Recent weeks have seen some outflows from ETH ETFs though, amid broader market volatility.
There’s an interesting data point about Bitmine – Arkham’s tracker shows about 1 million ETH, but company disclosures say they actually hold around 4.3 million. The difference? About 3 million ETH is staked, and Arkham reclassifies staked ETH under validator labels rather than the corporate entity.
The Ethereum Foundation itself holds 172,374 ETH, which feels relatively modest for the organization behind the network.
Layer 2 bridges and smart contracts account for another 4.4 million ETH. That reflects how much value is flowing through Ethereum’s scaling infrastructure these days.
Other Considerations
Individual early holders control less ETH than a single mid-tier exchange, which says something about how ownership has shifted over time.
There’s also the matter of seized and stolen funds – over 720,000 ETH sitting in wallets tied to criminal activity or defunct platforms. None of it is permanently locked, so whoever controls those keys could move the funds at any time.
When you step back and look at the whole picture, the concentration in staking, exchanges, and institutional treasuries suggests a maturing network. But it also raises questions about centralization. When a handful of exchanges and one asset manager control billions in ETH, their decisions on staking, withdrawals, and liquidations can have outsized market impact.
With staking participation still climbing, Layer 2 bridges absorbing more ETH, and hundreds of thousands of tokens tied up in problematic wallets, circulating supply continues to tighten from multiple directions. For traders and holders, keeping an eye on these flows through on-chain tools seems like a worthwhile exercise.
