TL;DR
- Ethereum researchers introduced EIP-8361, a proposal that would gradually burn validator rewards as staking participation grows.
- The mechanism could eliminate new ETH issuance when around 60.25 million ETH are staked, representing nearly half of supply.
- The draft aims to adjust Ethereum’s monetary policy while preserving validator incentives and long-term network security.
Ethereum researchers have introduced EIP-8361, a draft proposal that could reshape how Ethereum manages staking rewards by gradually reducing issuance as more ETH enters the validator system.
The proposal, known as Tapered Issuance Burn, suggests burning a growing portion of validator rewards until new ETH issuance reaches zero when approximately 60.25 million ETH are actively staked, a level expected to represent around 50% of Ethereum’s current supply.
The initiative was submitted by researchers including Jérôme de Tychey, Justin Drake, dapplion, pintail, pa7x1 and Ladislaus von Daniels. The proposal remains under discussion as a Core EIP and requires further review before any potential adoption.
🚨 New EIP: Tapered Issuance Burn
We just submitted an EIP to ethereum/EIPs: a minimal, market-driven fix to Ethereum's issuance policy removing the incentive for stake growth beyond 50% of ETH supply.
EIP-8361 by @pintail_xyz, @jdetychey, @dapplion, @pa7x1, @ladislaus0x &… pic.twitter.com/g1uzWPycQ4— Jerome de Tychey 🦇🔊 (@jdetychey) August 4, 2026
Ethereum Staking Issuance Could Reach A Zero-Burn Threshold
Under EIP-8361, Ethereum would modify the reward structure linked to validator activities such as attestations, block proposals and sync committee participation. Instead of distributing all calculated rewards, the protocol would automatically burn part of them based on the percentage of ETH being staked.
The burn rate would increase as staking participation rises across the network. Once Ethereum reaches around 60.25 million staked ETH, the proposal would activate a full burn mechanism, meaning validators would no longer generate additional ETH through issuance.
The researchers argue that Ethereum’s current monetary model maintains a minimum yield even if almost all ETH becomes staked. According to the proposal, the existing issuance curve continues providing roughly 1.5% annual rewards at extremely high staking levels, creating no natural point where issuance stops encouraging additional participation.
Ethereum’s staking ratio already passed one third of total supply, according to the proposal’s authors. They estimate that the amount of staked ETH could surpass 70 million by January 2028 if validator demand continues growing and withdrawal activity remains limited.
Ethereum Researchers Debate Long-Term Economic Balance
The proposal maintains different reward levels between active and inactive validators. Operators that successfully complete their duties would continue receiving higher rewards than those that fail, although part of the ideal reward would be redirected into the burn mechanism.
EIP-8361 also includes an 18 month transition period. The plan would initially increase Ethereum’s base reward factor from 64 to 128, allowing staking returns to remain close to current levels before gradually moving toward the new issuance curve.
