SharpLink opposes Ethereum EIP-8363, stating that zero returns will undermine the core reason for institutions to choose ETH

Joseph Chalom, CEO of the Ethereum treasury company SharpLink, posted in opposition to Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-8363. According to his disclosure, the current network issues new ETH to validators as staking rewards at a variable yield rate of about 2.75%. If the proposal is passed, it will be implemented in phases over approximately a year and a half, gradually destroying part of the issuance rewards as the staking amount increases. When about 50% of ETH is staked, the staking yield will drop to 0%, and validators will only be able to rely on transaction fees, which currently account for only 15% of staking rewards, to sustain themselves.

Chalom presented four points of opposition:

• Staking yield is the factual benchmark for all on-chain interest rates. The approximately $35 billion TVL of liquid staking tokens is the core collateral for on-chain lending. A yield of zero will raise on-chain capital costs, making actual yields approach or even become negative. Collateral will migrate to assets that still generate yields, and independent stakers and small to medium operators will be the first to be squeezed out.
• The native yield characteristic is precisely the key reason institutions choose ETH over Bitcoin. Erasing this difference is equivalent to voluntarily giving up its competitive advantage just as ETH is outperforming Bitcoin.
• Issuance is not a cost to external parties but a transfer of value to security maintainers and builders within the network. Destroying it is a destruction of value rather than a redistribution of this portion of value.
• The current timing is the worst; Ethereum is in a rising phase of institutional adoption, and destruction incentives will suppress this wave of adoption momentum.

He stated that SharpLink agrees with the proposal authors' goal of making ETH scarce and stabilizing the staking rate at a reasonable level, but believes this should be achieved through the existing base fee destruction mechanism rather than altering the economic foundation of the protocol.