Coinbase stakes its claim as Ethereum’s largest independant node operator

Coinbase is the largest single-node operator supporting staking activities on the Ethereum network.

According to its maiden Validator Performance report, the US-based exchange has staked 3.84 million ETH through 120,000 validators, accounting for 11.42% of the total staked ETH.

Beyond its direct staking operations, Coinbase has also staked an additional 581,500 ETH through partners as of March 4, 2025.

These combined staking operations solidify Coinbase’s lead among centralized competitors. In comparison, Binance currently stakes around 2 million ETH, and Kraken approximately 1 million ETH, placing Coinbase clearly ahead.

The company’s rapid expansion in Ethereum staking comes despite previous legal challenges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The financial regulator had alleged that Coinbase’s staking services violated securities laws.

However, the exchange denied these claims, arguing that staking enhances blockchain security and does not meet the legal criteria outlined in the US Securities Act or the Howey Test.

Validator performance

Validators play an important role in the network as they are responsible for verifying and validating new transactions and blocks on the blockchain.

The report highlights Coinbase’s efficiency, with its validators achieving a 99.75% uptime and participation rate.

The exchange stated that its validators are distributed across multiple jurisdictions, including Japan, Singapore, Ireland, Germany, and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the exchange validators utilize multiple execution and consensus clients to enhance security and decentralization further. This approach reduces the risk of network failures, mitigates potential attacks, and ensures stable rewards.

As a result, the exchange stated that its validators have a perfect track record of never double-signing or being slashed.

Largest node operator

Anthony Sassano, an Ethereum educator and founder of The Daily Gwei, pointed out that these numbers mean Coinbase is the largest individual node operator on the network.

According to him:

“Coinbase [is] the single largest node operator on the network (Lido is bigger as a collective, but each node operator has a much smaller % share).”

Dune Analytics data shows that Lido remains the dominant force in Ethereum staking, with over 9 million ETH staked. This represents approximately 27.3% of the total staking market.

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