Ethereum's staking rewards rate hits post-Merge record high, fueled by memecoin frenzy
![](data:image/svg+xml;utf-8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1013" height="665" />)
Ethereum's staking rewards rate climbed to a post-Merge record 8.6% this week, fueled by a surge in on-chain gas fees driven by the recent memecoin frenzy.
The jump in the staking rewards rate, which is a metric for the annualized yield of validators, has translated into $46 million in total income for validators in the first week of May. In all, validators earned 24,997 ETH on the week, according to data by ETH Store on the beaconcha.in website. That's a 40% increase over the $33 million in income for the final week of April, when 18,339 ETH were distributed as rewards.
Validators can thank the current memecoin trading trend. Ethereum's average fees consistently surpassed 100 gwei in the last week, the highest since May 2022. Thats' resulted in costs of over $30 per swap for end users. As gas fees rise, validators benefit from higher fee income from processing transactions, in addition to their regular validator rewards.
2 comments