A group of Ethereum researchers has submitted EIP-8361, a draft proposal that would gradually reduce validator rewards as the amount of staked ETH increases.

🚨 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

The proposal, called Tapered Issuance Burn, was submitted by researchers including Jérôme de Tychey, Justin Drake, dapplion, pintail, pa7x1 and Ladislaus von Daniels. It remains a draft Core EIP awaiting review and editor consensus.

Under the proposal, Ethereum would deduct and burn a portion of the rewards assigned to validators for attestations, block proposals and sync committee participation.

The burn rate would increase alongside Ethereum’s staking ratio and reach 100% when the network has approximately 60.25 million ETH actively staked, an amount set to represent roughly half of the current supply. Net staking yield would therefore decline as more ETH enters the validator set.

The authors said the current issuance curve continues offering a yield of around 1.5% even if nearly all ETH is staked. They argue that the remaining yield floor provides no point at which issuance stops encouraging additional staking.

Ethereum’s staking ratio surpassed one third of the supply in April, according to the proposal’s authors. They estimate that more than 70 million ETH could be staked by January 2028 if the validator entry queue remains near its maximum rate and exits remain limited.

EIP-8361 would preserve the existing differences between performing and nonperforming validators. Validators that complete their assigned duties would continue receiving more than validators that miss them, but a portion of the ideal reward would be burned regardless.

The permanent reward curve would not take effect immediately. The proposal includes an 18 month transition that would initially double Ethereum’s base reward factor from 64 to 128 before gradually returning it to its current level. The authors said this would allow net yields to begin near existing levels before moving toward the new curve.

The proposal would take effect across the full staking curve from activation, meaning issuance would no longer provide an incentive for staking growth beyond the 50% threshold from the first day.

The authors said issuance would peak at approximately 0.5% of the ETH supply annually near a 20% staking ratio before declining to zero at 50%.

Early responses to the proposal have raised concerns about its potential effect on solo validators and Ethereum’s economic security. Participants in the Ethereum Magicians discussion questioned whether lower yields could favor large operators with lower costs and reduce the number of independent validators.

The authors are seeking to have EIP-8361 considered for the proposed Hegotá network upgrade. De Tychey said consideration would begin a period of community review and would not guarantee that the proposal is included in the upgrade.