The Ethereum Foundation's proposal to taper staking yield tries to solve a supply problem when the real issue is a lack of demand for ETH itself, according to the panel on this week's episode of Licensed to Shill.
Takatoshi Shibayama, host of the show and head of APAC at Ledger, opened by noting that more than a third of ETH's circulating supply is staked with providers such as Lido and various custodians. The Foundation's proposal, which would cut staking yield from roughly 3% to about 1.2%, is meant to prevent liquid staking providers from concentrating too much influence over the network and to protect non-staking holders from dilution.
Co-host Lisa J. Tan argued the plan borrows from central bank playbooks, where rate cuts are used to push money out of savings and into productive use. She said the analogy breaks down at the micro level: unlike a bank depositor who can lend to a business or fund a bridge, an ETH holder has no comparable outlet once the staking return shrinks. Whitan drew a direct comparison to Japan, where near-zero rates have persisted for decades without a productive outlet for capital, and argued Ethereum risks the same equilibrium without Japan's accumulated wealth or export base to fall back on.
Panel guest Timothy Han pushed the case that ETH's underlying problem is that it never developed the utility it was designed to have. Han noted ETH underpins roughly 90% of decentralized finance activity, but said "there's no utility of ETH in itself, not for trading, but to use ETH for something in that ecosystem." He argued the token's function has been reduced to producing a risk-free rate for speculators, without an independent use case pulling in new demand.
Taka summarized the disconnect by comparing the yield mechanics to cosmetic fixes: "It's like if the car can't even move, you can have the nicest spray paint and nicest leather seats, it's just not going to work."
A secondary thread covered liquidity migration. Tan pointed out that trading liquidity has moved to layer-2 networks and competing chains such as Solana, which now offer cheaper execution and more enterprise products, leaving Ethereum with fewer of the "tourists" who once built on it during past hype cycles.
None of the three panelists offered a concrete fix. Han noted that cutting yield without adding utility risks the opposite of its stated goal: flooding more ETH into circulation without giving holders anywhere productive to put it.
If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe to Blockcast on your favorite podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple .
Blockcast is hosted by Head of APAC at Ledger, Takatoshi Shibayama . Previous episodes of Blockcast can be found here , with guests like Daren Guo (Reap), Yat Siu (Animoca Brands), Kean Gilbert (Lido), Joey Isaacson (Nook), Kapil Dhiman (Quranium) Eric van Miltenburg (Ripple), Davide Menegaldo (Neon EVM), Anastasia Plotnikova (Fideum), Jeremy Tan (Singapore parliament candidate), Hassan Ahmed (Coinbase) and more on our recent shows.
If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe to Blockcast on your favorite podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple .
