Figment’s Staking Growth and Regulatory Clarity Boost Ethereum’s Institutional Adoption
Figment’s validators demonstrated exceptional reliability in the first quarter of 2026, maintaining a 99.9% participation rate, surpassing the network average of 99.7%. The provider reported zero slashing events during this period, despite 33 occurring across the network. Consensus layer rewards accounted for 93% of total validator rewards, while execution layer rewards made up the remaining 7%. Figment’s validators received a median of 0.010827 ETH per block proposal, exceeding the network median by over 7%.
The infrastructure prioritizes safety over liveness, focusing on slashing avoidance and capital protection. It separates validator operations, key management, and governance controls to mitigate correlated risks. Figment uses multi-client infrastructure, supporting both Lighthouse and Prysm clients, and integrates MEV-Boost with OFAC-compliant relays. The interquartile range for daily staking reward rates remains tighter for Figment than for its peers.
A significant regulatory shift occurred on March 17, 2026, when the SEC and CFTC clarified that federal securities laws do not apply to staking rewards earned through decentralized proof-of-stake networks. This followed the launch of BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust on March 12, 2026, which delegates 70% to 95% of its ETH holdings to professional validators, including Figment. BlackRock retains 18% of gross staking rewards as a service fee and charges an annual management fee of 0.25%, resulting in a net yield of 2.3% to 2.5% for investors.
The liquid staking market reached over $50 billion in 2025, with Lido’s dominance decreasing from 32.3% to 24.4%. Figment added approximately 344,000 ETH in new stakers last month, following the SEC’s decision that staking is not a securities activity. The total ETH staked reached 35.85 million ETH in early 2026, representing 28.91% of the total ETH supply. The network has over 1.1 million active validators, with compounding validators holding 3,580,916 ETH as of October 2025.