Ethereum Staking Providers Face New Math After Pectra Upgrade
The recent Pectra upgrade to Ethereum has brought significant changes to the staking landscape. The update introduced the 0x02 validator type, which allows up to 2,048 ETH per validator through EIP-7251, enabling auto-compounding rewards that increase the validator balance over time.
This mechanism provides a ~1.5% relative APR uplift and enables users to add ETH to a position or perform partial withdrawals. Legacy 0x01 validators still work but require new validators to add more ETH.
The Pectra upgrade also reduced validator activation time to approximately 45 minutes via EIP-6110 and lowered the initial slashing penalty to 1/4096 of the effective balance.
Figment and Kiln, two leading staking providers, control 61% of the Ethereum staking market. Figment holds a 34% share of the staking-as-a-service market and manages approximately $4 billion in staked ETH.
Kiln targets developers with its embedded staking features via APIs, while Figment provides broad protocol support for Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos, leading liquid staking through Liquid Collective.