The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking part of its treasury under a policy announced last year. The Foundation deposited 2,016 ETH on Monday as the first step, and around 70,000 ETH will be staked during the process. Staking rewards will return to the Foundation’s treasury to support operations, research, and community programs.
The Foundation selected the open-source tools Dirk and Vouch for the setup. Dirk works as a distributed signer and can run in several regions, so no single machine can halt validation. Vouch supports multiple execution and consensus client pairings, and this design aims to manage risks linked to client diversity.
The Foundation said its staking system uses minority clients and a mix of hosted services and self-managed hardware across several jurisdictions. It also uses Type 2 withdrawal credentials, which allow validator balances to move between accounts through consolidations. These credentials reduce key management demands and support flexible control over validator exits.
Technical Structure and Validator Design
Validators will operate with a maximum effective balance of 2,048 ETH, which lowers the number of signing keys needed for the setup. The Foundation estimated that around 35 keys will be required. Type 2 credentials also allow exits from the withdrawal address even if validators are offline.
The Foundation said it will build blocks locally rather than using proposer-builder separation sidecars. It added that this design ensures more operational control and keeps the system stable across regions.
The organization said, “We are excited to take this important step,” as it expects staking rewards to support protocol work and ecosystem programs. It also said the effort will add more security to the network as new validators enter active duty.
Market Watches Price Action as ETH Declines
The staking process began during a period of weak price action for Ethereum. ETH recently traded near the $1,800 range, and traders monitored the market to see if selling pressure would continue.Â
One analyst said that buyers have not shown strong interest at current levels and that the market may revisit this month’s lows.
On-chain data has also shown attention on recent activity from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Lookonchain reported that he sold about 3788 ETH in the past two days, worth around $7.3 million.
Analysts Review Patterns and Ethereum Price Prediction
Chart analysts continued to monitor Ethereum’s trend as new patterns formed on the daily chart. Trader Tardigrade said that a second bearish pennant has now broken down and that it shows a measured move toward the $1,072 area.Â
He noted that the first pennant earlier this year met its target at $1,735, and he said the current pattern follows the same structure. He added that the chart “is already moving toward the target” as sellers remain active.
Source: X
Another trader, Ted, observed that ETH dropped near $1,800 during the recent session and that buyers have not yet shown strong interest. He said price could move below this month’s lows before any attempt at recovery. Both traders said the current conditions show weak demand near the present range, and they continue to watch whether support forms at lower levels.
