Staking rewards come from two places: new coins the protocol issues to validators, and the transaction fees users pay that are not burned. On Ethereum, validators earn newly issued ETH for attesting and proposing blocks, and they also receive the priority fees (tips) on the transactions they include. The base fee is burned and goes to no one. Several things reduce what reaches you: the operator or pool fee, missed duties, slashing, how long your funds are locked, and tax. A headline rate tells you what the network pays. It does not tell you what you keep. As of 25 October 2026, ethereum.org lists a current staking APR of 2.5%. For the basics, see our explainer on what crypto staking is and how it works.
Source one: newly issued coins
Ethereum: issuance is tied to total stake
Since The Merge, Ethereum issues no new ETH on the execution layer. All new issuance goes to validators on the consensus layer. Per ethereum.org, total annualised issuance after The Merge is about 0.52%, down from about 4.61% before it.
Each validator's pay comes from a "base reward". The protocol calculates it as:
base_reward = effective_balance × base_reward_factor / (base_rewards_per_epoch × sqrt(sum(active_balance)))
Here base_reward_factor is 64, base_rewards_per_epoch is 4, and sum(active_balance) is all the ETH staked by active validators. Because total stake sits in the denominator, the reward per validator goes down as more ETH is staked. Total issuance still rises, but only with the square root of the number of validators. This is why a staking rate quoted months ago may no longer hold. As of 25 October 2026, ethereum.org shows about 35% of ETH staked, or 43,948,738 ETH.
What validators are paid for
The base reward is split by duty. The weights add up to 64, and a validator earns the weights for the duties it completes on time:
| Duty | Weight (of 64) |
|---|---|
| Timely target vote | 26 |
| Timely source vote | 14 |
| Timely head vote | 14 |
| Block proposer | 8 |
| Sync committee | 2 |
Attestations make up 54 of the 64 parts, so a validator's income depends mainly on staying online and voting on time. Block proposals and sync-committee duty come up rarely for any single validator.
Solana: a fixed, declining inflation schedule
Solana uses a set schedule rather than a stake-linked formula. Its documentation gives an initial inflation rate of 8% a year, falling by 15% year over year until it reaches a long-term fixed rate of 1.5% a year. The docs say the yield on staked SOL starts from the current inflation rate. It also depends on how much SOL is staked across the network and on each validator's uptime and commission. A governance proposal, SIMD-0550, would double the disinflation rate from 15% to 30% a year while keeping the 1.5% long-term rate. Its authors estimate that this would bring the floor in about 2.8 years instead of 5.7.
Source two: transaction fees
On Ethereum, each transaction pays a base fee and an optional priority fee. Per ethereum.org, the base fee is burned and the validator who proposes the block receives the tip. Fee burning started with the London upgrade in August 2021. When the network is busy, the burn can be larger than new issuance. Ethereum.org says an average gas price of at least 16 gwei over a day offsets the roughly 1,700 ETH issued to validators that day. That affects the ETH supply, not your reward directly.
On Solana, the community approved SIMD-0096 in May 2024, and it has since been activated. It sends 100% of priority fees to the validator. Before, 50% was burned.
What does a quoted staking rate leave you?
Enter a dated network rate, your operator's fee and the share of rewards you expect to lose to downtime to see a rough net rate.
| Dated network staking rate (APR) | Operator, pool or validator commission, as a share of rewards | Share of rewards you expect to lose to downtime | Rough net rate before tax and price moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 % | 10 % | 0 % | 2.25 % |
| 2.5 % | 10 % | 0 % | 2.25 % |
| 2.5 % | 10 % | 10 % | 2.025 % |
| 2.5 % | 0 % | 0 % | 2.5 % |
- All three values are your own inputs; the 2.5% default is a dated network figure, not a promise of what you will earn.
- The result is a simple rate (APR) paid in the staked token; it does not add compounding, so it is not an APY.
This is arithmetic on your inputs only: it leaves out slashing, exit-queue waits, gas for withdrawals, tax on rewards and the token's price, which can turn a positive rate into a loss in your own currency.
What cuts what you keep
Operator and pool fees
Ethereum.org describes the main routes, from most protocol-native to most abstracted: home (solo) staking, delegated staking (staking as a service), liquid and pooled staking, and centralized exchanges. With pooled staking, "the protocol pays rewards to the pool's validators, not to you directly." With delegated staking, "the protocol pays your validator; the operator charges a fee on rewards." Any service fee comes out of the gross rate. On Solana, the validator's commission does the same. Solo staking on Ethereum has no middleman, but you need at least 32 ETH to activate a validator.
Missed duties
On Ethereum, a missed source or target vote costs the same amount it would have earned. A missed head vote, a late attestation or a missed block proposal carries no penalty, but the validator forgoes the reward. Downtime therefore costs you twice on the votes that carry the most weight. If the chain goes more than four epochs without finalizing, an "inactivity leak" drains stake from inactive validators until active ones control more than two thirds of the total.
Slashing
Slashing is a penalty for provably malicious behaviour, such as signing conflicting messages. It is not a penalty for ordinary downtime. Per ethereum.org, a slashed 32 ETH validator first has 0.0078125 ETH burned, and a 36-day removal period begins. At the midpoint, day 18, a further "correlation penalty" applies. It grows with the total ETH slashed in the previous 36 days. The maximum is the slashed validators' full effective balance. A one-off mistake by a single validator costs relatively little. Slashing on a large scale, for example many validators run by one faulty operator, can wipe out the stake. Delegated and pooled stakers carry this operator risk too.
Locked funds and exit queues
On Ethereum, validators with legacy (0x01) withdrawal credentials have any balance above 32 ETH swept to their withdrawal address automatically. The Pectra upgrade added compounding (0x02) validators with a maximum effective balance of 2,048 ETH. For these, rewards compound in the stake, and only the balance above 2,048 ETH is swept automatically. Below that, you have to request a withdrawal yourself and pay gas. The switch to 0x02 cannot be reversed. To withdraw everything, you must exit the validator, and exits go through a rate-limited queue whose length depends on how many others are leaving at the same time. While you wait, you cannot sell, and the price of the token can move.
Compounding
Where rewards are restaked automatically, as in many pooled and liquid setups and with 0x02 validators, the effective annual yield (APY) is higher than the simple rate (APR). Check that two offers quote the same measure before you compare them.
Tax
In the US, Rev. Rul. 2023-14 says a cash-method taxpayer must include staking rewards in gross income for the year they gain dominion and control over them. The amount is the rewards' fair market value at the date and time of that control. The ruling applies the same rule to staking through an exchange. Tax on a reward is owed even if the token's price falls later. Rules differ by country.
A simple way to estimate a net figure
Start from a dated network rate, not a marketing number. Subtract the operator's fee, which is a share of rewards, so a 10% fee on a 2.5% rate leaves 2.25%. Allow some margin for downtime. Then remember the result is paid in the token, so its value in your currency rises and falls with the price. Staking yields are not fixed and do not guarantee a profit.
