The Ethereum Foundation deposited 2,016 ETH into staking on February 24, 2026, marking the first time the nonprofit has ever put its treasury to work as a validator. The initial deposit, worth approximately $3.7 million at the time of writing, is the opening move in a broader plan to stake roughly 70,000 ETH, valued at around $128 million at current prices. Staking rewards will flow back into the Foundation's treasury to fund protocol research, ecosystem development, and community grants.
The announcement, published on the Foundation's blog, follows the June 2025 Treasury Policy that shifted the organization from passive ETH holding to active treasury management. For an entity that spent years refusing to stake on principle, the move represents one of the most significant operational pivots in the Foundation's history.
The Vault That Stayed Closed for Years
The Ethereum Foundation's refusal to stake was never about technical limitations. It was a deliberate neutrality stance. Vitalik Buterin explained the reasoning in 2024: if the EF stakes, it is forced to take a position on any future contentious hard fork. Staked ETH automatically commits to one side of a chain split, and the Foundation did not want its infrastructure choices to signal an "official" preference.
That logic held for years while the Foundation funded itself primarily through periodic ETH sales, a practice that drew consistent criticism from the community. At its peak in late 2024, the Foundation held roughly $970 million in total reserves, with approximately $788 million in crypto assets, predominantly ETH.
The June 2025 Treasury Policy changed the calculus. That policy introduced a 15% annual operational spending cap, a 2.5-year reserve buffer requirement, and what the Foundation called a "Defipunk" evaluation framework for DeFi participation. The policy explicitly opened the door to yield generation, staking included, provided the infrastructure met the Foundation's standards for decentralization, open-source access, and resilience.
How the Foundation Built Its Validator Stack
The technical architecture is deliberately conservative. Rather than delegating to a liquid staking protocol or a third-party staking-as-a-service provider, the Foundation chose solo staking using open-source tools developed by Attestant, an infrastructure firm now owned by Bitwise.
Two tools form the backbone of the setup:
- Dirk operates as a distributed signer, spreading signing operations across multiple geographic regions. If one jurisdiction goes offline or faces regulatory interference, the others continue validating without interruption.
- Vouch coordinates multiple Beacon Client and Execution Client pairings. This is the client diversity layer. By running minority clients alongside majority ones, the Foundation reduces the risk that a single client bug takes down its entire validator set.
The validators use Type 2 (0x02) withdrawal credentials, a newer standard that enables balance consolidation between validators without exiting and re-entering. With a maximum effective balance of 2,048 ETH per validator, the Foundation needs only about 35 signing keys to cover the full 70,000 ETH deployment.
One notable choice: the Foundation builds blocks locally rather than using proposer-builder separation (PBS) sidecars. This means the Foundation's validators do not outsource block construction to external builders, avoiding the MEV supply chain entirely. It is a less profitable approach, since PBS-connected validators capture MEV tips, but it aligns with the Foundation's neutrality principles.
The infrastructure combines hosted services with self-managed hardware spread across several countries. The initial validator deposit is publicly traceable on Beaconcha.in, and the remaining deposits are scheduled for the coming weeks.
The Numbers: $3.6 Million in Annual Yield
At the current network staking yield of approximately 2.8%, 70,000 ETH generates roughly 1,960 ETH per year, or about $3.6 million at February 2026 prices. That is not transformative revenue for an organization with a $970 million treasury, but it is not trivial either.
The Foundation's June 2025 policy set a 15% annual opex target with plans to reduce it linearly to 5% over five years. At $970 million in reserves, 15% means roughly $145 million in annual spending. Staking yield covers about 2.5% of that budget, a meaningful supplement that compounds over time without requiring additional ETH sales.
The yield also creates a structural bid for ETH. Instead of selling treasury ETH to cover expenses (which the Foundation has done repeatedly, drawing criticism each time), staking generates income denominated in ETH. The treasury shrinks slower. If ETH prices recover, the compounding effect accelerates.
For context, the Foundation's total treasury of 172,650 ETH plus 10,000 WETH means the 70,000 ETH staking commitment covers roughly 38% of its liquid ETH holdings. The remaining 62% stays unstaked, preserving flexibility for future spending, grants, or emergency needs.
Vitalik Sells While the Foundation Stakes
The timing creates an unavoidable optics problem. In the same month the Foundation begins staking to preserve its treasury, co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold 10,723 ETH for $21.7 million since February 2, according to on-chain data tracked by Arkham Intelligence. His most recent batch was 3,789 ETH worth approximately $7.3 million.
Buterin has said the sales fund his personal commitment to open-source software, hardware, and biotech projects, describing the capital allocation as his "own share of the austerity." He still holds over 224,000 ETH, worth roughly $429 million.
The contrast matters because the Ethereum community has spent years watching Foundation and insider wallets sell into weakness. ETH is trading near $1,855 as of February 25, 2026, down roughly 63% from its August 2025 all-time high of $4,954. The Foundation's decision to generate yield rather than sell is a direct response to that criticism. But Buterin's simultaneous sales dilute the narrative.
What This Means for Ethereum's Staking Economy
The Foundation staking 70,000 ETH adds roughly 0.2% to the network's total staked supply. The impact on yields is negligible. But the signal matters more than the size.
The EF is now a validator operator. It runs its own infrastructure, builds blocks locally, and has skin in the game on consensus performance. If a contentious hard fork ever materializes, the neutrality problem the Foundation previously feared is now real, though the Type 2 withdrawal credentials offer some flexibility for quick exits.
For individual ETH holders, the Foundation's move validates staking as the baseline treasury strategy. If the most conservative entity in the Ethereum ecosystem has concluded that staking is safe enough for its reserves, the argument for keeping ETH idle weakens considerably. This is relevant for anyone earning staking rewards through crypto card platforms or holding ETH in self-custody wallets and wondering whether to delegate.
The choice of solo staking over liquid staking (Lido, Rocket Pool, or similar) is also a statement. The Foundation did not want a liquid staking token sitting in its treasury. It wanted direct control over validator keys, block construction, and withdrawal timing. That approach is harder to replicate for smaller holders, but it sets a benchmark for institutional staking practices.
FAQ
How much ETH is the Ethereum Foundation staking? The Foundation plans to stake approximately 70,000 ETH, starting with an initial deposit of 2,016 ETH on February 24, 2026.
Why did the Ethereum Foundation previously refuse to stake? The Foundation avoided staking because it would force the organization to take a side in any future contentious hard fork. Staked ETH automatically commits to one chain, and the Foundation wanted to remain neutral.
What yield will the Foundation earn? At the current network staking rate of approximately 2.8%, 70,000 ETH would generate roughly 1,960 ETH per year, worth about $3.6 million at current prices.
What tools does the Foundation use for staking? The Foundation uses Dirk (a distributed signer) and Vouch (a multi-client coordinator), both open-source tools developed by Attestant, now owned by Bitwise.
Does this affect ETH price? The direct impact on staking yields is minimal since 70,000 ETH represents about 0.2% of total staked supply. However, the signal that the Foundation is choosing to earn yield rather than sell ETH removes a source of persistent selling pressure.
Overview
The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking its treasury for the first time, depositing 2,016 ETH on February 24, 2026, with plans to deploy 70,000 ETH total. The move follows the June 2025 Treasury Policy that shifted the Foundation from passive holding to active management. Using solo staking with Attestant's open-source Dirk and Vouch tools, the Foundation expects to generate roughly $3.6 million per year at current yields. The decision reverses years of deliberate non-participation in staking, driven by hard-fork neutrality concerns, and arrives as ETH trades near $1,855, down 63% from its all-time high. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin's simultaneous sale of 10,723 ETH for $21.7 million in February complicates the narrative but does not change the structural shift: the Foundation is now generating yield instead of selling.
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