Reward Burns Could Cap Ethereum Issuance as Staking Continues to Grow

Ethereum's supply dynamics have taken an interesting turn this year. Despite steady-to-up staking issuance, base-fee burns have been dwindling due to decreased on-chain activity.

This has led to a net positive issuance of approximately +0.21% over the 90 days to July 27, 2026, with validators earning around 254,000 ETH in issuance and EIP-1559 base-fee burns removing about 5,200 ETH during that period.

The daily burn averaged ~58 ETH/day but fell to ~27 ETH/day in the last month of that window. Staking growth has been a key factor, with around 38.5 million ETH staked over the same period, moving towards 40 million by mid-year.

A proposal suggests burning a portion of validator rewards (priority fees and/or MEV) to provide a counterweight to issuance when base-fee burns are weak. This could potentially cap issuance even as more ETH gets staked.