Bitwise releases 2026 Q3 staking report: activity of major chains has increased but revenue has generally declined, and institutional entry has become the core theme
Comparative news, according to the “2026 Q3 Staking Report” released by Bitwise, the 2026 Q2 showed a differentiated pattern of “increased on-chain activity and reduced fee revenue”. The core driving factor is that various protocols actively reduce block space costs.
In terms of core data for each chain, Ethereum's active staking volume reached a record high of 40.2 million ETH (accounting for 33% of total supply), and network revenue fell 51% year over year to $64 million, but rebounded month-on-month in terms of ETH; Solana Q2's real economic value (REV) fell to 51 million US dollars, shrinking sharply from the peak of US$812 million in Q1 in 2025, but the volume of non-voting transactions reached 9.8 billion, and on-chain activity remained resilient; total revenue from the Hyperliquid Q2 protocol At US$174.8 million, perpetual contract transactions reached US$652 billion, and the share of non-cryptographic assets (commodities, stock indices, etc.) rose to 32%; Avalanche's C-chain transaction volume increased by about four times to 236 million transactions, but network revenue was only US$330,000 due to a sharp drop in fees; NEAR's Q2 chain volume plummeted 75% to 77.7 million transactions due to the collapse of Kai-Ching application activity, but the Intents execution layer generated fees about 68 times that of the underlying chain.
In terms of institutional adoption, BlackRock launched an Ethereum staked ETF (ETHB), Coinbase and Circle each pledged 500,000 HYPE, and Bitwise, 21Shares, and Grayscale launched HYPE spot ETFs. Additionally, Tempo, a stablecoin payment chain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, processed $386 million in transfers in the first quarter, and global payroll platform Deel distributed approximately $30 million to 7,200 contractors through the chain.
