Key Takeaways
What’s driving Ethereum’s staking growth heading into 2026?
Innovations like liquid restaking and ETF staking are attracting more validators and institutional capital.
How could this impact Ethereum’s price in 2026?
Rising demand and participation may push ETH above $5,000 early in the year, with $6,000 possible mid-year.
The Ethereum [ETH] ecosystem has experienced explosive growth in recent years, with staking becoming a favorite among both individual and institutional investors.
As a result, Ethereum staking has grown steadily, changing how crypto investors earn yields and secure their holdings.
Going into 2026, Ethereum staking is expected to continue growing, especially with the Fusaka upgrade scheduled for December 2025.
But what should market players expect in 2026?
Continued rise of liquid restaking
Ethereum staking has rapidly evolved, with restaking emerging as one of its most significant innovations.
In simple terms, restaking allows already staked ETH, or liquid staking tokens like sETH, to be used again to secure additional services and earn extra rewards.
This approach lets stakers earn yields from multiple sources while keeping their assets liquid, making restaking highly capital-efficient.
As a result, liquid restaking protocols have achieved a high TVL in 2025, peaking at $17 billion before dropping $10.7 billion at press time.
Source: Defillama
This growth arises from validators shifting from native staking to liquid restaking to earn higher yields. Such a drastic shift leaves more room for Ethereum’s liquid restaking to grow.
Therefore, as more validators prefer liquid restaking, VAS (Validator-as-a-Service) could experience massive growth in 2026.
Expansion of ETH ETFs staking
In 2025, one of the most notable developments for Ethereum staking was the approval of the ETH Spot ETF staking.
In October, Grayscale became the first U.S. spot Crypto ETF under the 33 Act route to add ETH staking.
Since then, Grayscale’s ETHE has seen Cumulative Inflows reach $4.7 billion. At the same time, Grayscale’s ETH has recorded $1.49 billion in inflows and $2.3 billion in net assets.
Source: SosoValue
Sustained inflows into Grayscale’s ETH fund signal rising investor demand, despite current market weakness.
By staking a portion of its ETH holdings, Grayscale allows investors to earn rewards passively, gaining exposure to Ethereum while benefiting from staking yields.
This marks a major milestone, as Ethereum ETFs have now been active for a full year. With Grayscale leading the way, other asset managers are expected to follow in 2026.
VanEck has already filed for a Lido Staked Ethereum ETF, aiming to give investors direct access to staking rewards.
Looking ahead, firms like Fidelity, BlackRock, Bitwise, and 21Shares are likely to submit similar applications, potentially launching their own staking-enabled ETH funds next year.
Maturing Ethereum staking ecosystem
Significantly, one of the most likely outcomes for Ethereum staking is a mature, competitive, and capital-effective ecosystem.
As such, Ethereum staking is expected to enter a mature phase with greater institutional participation and diversification in yield strategies.
Source: Dune
Ethereum staking is poised for a significant increase in participation, with staked ETH projected to grow from 36 million to 40 million.
To support this expansion, the number of validators may rise from 1.1 million to 1.5 million.
As the ecosystem matures, staking flows are expected to improve, shifting from negative Net Flow to positive by 2026.
Source: Dune
As such, Staking Ethereum Flows will reclaim 1.1 million ETH and cross the 2 million mark if the ETH price performs well.
What will it mean to ETH?
Naturally, increased participation from institutional and individual investors will lead to higher capital flows into the Ethereum ecosystem.
On top of that, increased adoption of Ethereum liquid staking will boost the actual demand for Ethereum tokens. As a result, ETH will record significant upward pressure, a prelude to higher prices.
In doing so, we could see ETH trading above $5k in early 2026, with the possibility of hitting $6k mid-year.
This will also have a positive impact on staking flows and Total value for restaking and staking protocols, as history has proven.