SharpLink co-chief executive Joseph Chalom has urged Ethereum developers to reject EIP-8363, a draft proposal that would progressively burn validator rewards as more ETH is staked, arguing that cutting issuance yield could disrupt DeFi’s underlying interest-rate structure and weaken incentives to secure the network.
The proposal, called “Tapered Issuance Burn,” would increase the portion of consensus-layer rewards that is burned as the percentage of ETH committed to staking rises. At roughly 50% of the total ETH supply staked, the proposal’s formula would burn 100% of issuance rewards, reducing the issuance component of staking yield to zero.
Chalom’s criticism places a debate over Ethereum’s monetary policy alongside questions about staking concentration, validator economics and the role of ETH yield in onchain lending and liquidity markets. SharpLink, which holds and deploys ETH through validators and DeFi protocols, is described as the second-largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm.
Proposal would taper validator issuance as staking expands
EIP-8363 was introduced earlier this week by a group of authors that includes Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and EthCC founder JĂ©rĂ´me de Tychey. Its stated aim is to restrain the amount of ETH staked according to market conditions while reducing dilution for holders who choose not to stake.
Ethereum currently issues rewards to validators for participating in the consensus process that orders and confirms transactions. Staking returns can also include fees and other rewards, but issuance has become a central reference point for products built around staked ETH.
The draft would not impose a fixed numerical ceiling on the amount of ETH that can be staked. Instead, it would make staking progressively less lucrative through a rising burn mechanism. As staking participation increases, a larger share of the newly issued validator rewards would be destroyed rather than paid out.
According to the proposal, the phase-in could take about 18 months after adoption, depending on how much ETH enters staking. The model is designed to push the issuance yield lower as staking approaches the proposed threshold, making further staking less attractive without directly preventing ETH holders from locking tokens.
Supporters see the approach as a way to avoid a system in which an increasingly large portion of ETH is staked and non-stakers bear greater dilution. Critics argue that the proposed remedy may create a new problem: a less predictable yield environment for validators and DeFi applications built around staked ETH.
Chalom says Ethereum yield anchors DeFi markets
Chalom said staking yield functions as a base rate across Ethereum’s onchain economy. Liquid staking tokens, lending protocols and other DeFi systems use staking returns as a reference for pricing, collateral decisions and capital allocation.
That relationship means a reduction in issuance rewards would extend beyond individual validators. Users supplying ETH to a liquid staking protocol receive tokens representing staked positions and accrued rewards; those tokens are frequently used as collateral or liquidity in other protocols. A material reduction in expected yield could alter borrowing costs and the demand for leveraged or yield-bearing ETH strategies.
Chalom argued that a policy designed to discourage excess staking could therefore change the economics of markets that have developed around ETH as a productive asset. His position reflects a practical concern for large ETH holders active in validators and DeFi: the reward rate is not merely a return for securing Ethereum but an input into a growing set of financial products.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov raised similar objections, citing uncertainty around future yield and the risk that ETH could become less attractive as a productive asset. The criticism focuses on the proposal’s feedback loop: as more ETH is staked, the mechanism would lower the rewards available to all participants, potentially making long-term return assumptions harder to model.
Solo-staker and security concerns remain unresolved
Opponents have also warned that EIP-8363 could affect solo stakers more heavily than larger operators. Large staking services and institutions may have lower operating costs, diversified revenue sources or a broader set of products tied to their staking operations. A solo validator operating on a narrower margin may be more sensitive to declining issuance rewards.
The proposal’s detractors say that difference could work against one of Ethereum’s long-running goals: maintaining a geographically and operationally diverse validator set. If lower rewards make solo validation less economical, some independent operators could decide to exit, while larger providers may be better placed to absorb the change.
Network security is tied to that calculation. Ethereum’s proof-of-stake model relies on validators committing ETH that can be penalized for misconduct. Lower issuance rewards do not automatically mean lower security, since transaction fees and other incentives would remain relevant, but they could change the financial trade-off faced by existing and prospective validators.
The draft’s supporters, meanwhile, are responding to a separate concern: high staking participation can concentrate a large share of ETH supply in staking arrangements, including liquid staking systems. EIP-8363 attempts to limit that outcome through economic incentives rather than protocol-level restrictions on who may participate.
Timing puts the proposal into the Hegota debate
Chalom also questioned the process and timing of the submission, saying EIP-8363 was introduced two days before the deadline to be considered as a non-headlining item for Ethereum’s upcoming Hegota hardfork.
FOCIL, short for Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, is currently scheduled as Hegota’s headline proposal. FOCIL is intended to address transaction censorship risks by requiring blocks to account for transactions included on specified lists under certain conditions.
Hegota is expected to activate months after Glamsterdam, another Ethereum upgrade anticipated in the second half of the year. EIP-8363 remains under consideration and could be declined, leaving the reward-burn mechanism outside that upgrade cycle.
The proposal arrives as Ethereum-affiliated organizations pursue more institutional-facing initiatives. The ecosystem recently launched the Ethereum Institutional nonprofit, while EthSystems was created as a for-profit business spun out of the Ethereum Foundation to develop corporate privacy tools. Those efforts place additional attention on how Ethereum’s yield, security model and DeFi infrastructure are understood by companies considering ETH treasury or onchain-finance strategies.
EIP-8363 has exposed a difficult trade-off for Ethereum developers: limiting dilution for non-stakers could come at the cost of a less stable staking benchmark for validators and DeFi. Whether the proposal advances toward Hegota will depend on whether its authors can address concerns that its cure for rising staking participation may weaken the economic foundations built around ETH rewards.
For deeper context on Ethereum’s mechanics before upgrades like EIP-8363, explore what is Ethereum and how does it work.
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