In this issue of Coin Metrics’ State of the Network, we examine Coin Metrics’ new staking yield and inflation metrics to understand Ethereum and Solana’s staking mechanics and network economics, contextualizing their staking ecosystems.
Key takeaways:
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Ethereum has 34.4M ETH staked (28% of current supply), while Solana’s active staked supply is 297M SOL (51% of current supply ratio), due to lower barrier to entry for delegators.
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Ethereum has a larger validator set of 1.07M validators, while Solana, with higher hardware demands, has 5,048 validators but over 1.21M delegators.
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Ethereum’s nominal staking yield is 3.08% (2.73% inflation-adjusted), serving as a benchmark for the on-chain economy. Solana offers higher yields of 11.5% (12.5% real), though delegators earn less than validators due to differing reward structures.
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Ethereum’s continuous issuance results in an annualized inflation rate of 0.35%, with burns from EIP-1559 often leading to deflationary periods. Solana follows an epoch-based inflation schedule with a current annualized inflation rate of 4.7%, set to stabilize at 1.5%.
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