Currently, there are 2.47 million ETH queued up for staking, with an estimated wait time of about 43 days. Meanwhile, only 128 ETH are queued for withdrawal. But if the new proposal EIP-8363 gets approved, once the staked ETH reaches half of the total network supply, the additional staking rewards will drop to zero. Basically, it’s discouraging people from staking just to earn passive income. Although Vitalik didn’t sign off on this proposal, he actually expressed support for similar ideas several years ago. For those already staking, if the proposal passes, interest rates will drop, and rewards will be slashed from 2.6% to 1.2%. The main benefit for the price of ETH comes from reduced issuance. Based on the current 41 million ETH staked and rough calculations using the two reward curves, annual issuance could drop from 2.6% to 1.2%, potentially reducing issuance by around 570,000 ETH per year. Overall, this might be a lifeline for ETH’s struggling price. The future of the Ethereum guards might just be saved.