Ethereum Staked Value Hits Record High Despite Weakening Institutional Interest

Ethereum's total staked value has continued to rise, reaching a new record high of 39.69 million ETH. This increase in staked value suggests that investors are now focused on chasing yield rather than exiting the market entirely.

According to data from CryptoQuant, the cohort primarily responsible for holding onto their tokens is wallets with balances between 10K-100K ETH. These investors have increased their collective balance by 120K ETH in the last week, a slight improvement from the previous week when their holdings saw minimal changes.

However, retail investors have continued to distribute their staked ETH, with wallets holding 100-1K and 1K-10K ETH offloading a combined 336K ETH last week. This move suggests that onchain activity is tilting bearish, as retail distribution outweighs whale accumulation.

Institutional participation also continues to weaken, with US spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recording 15 consecutive days of net outflows.