Coinbase Hits 65% Non-Prysm Validators: Ethereum’s Client Diversity

Coinbase has announced important progress in its ongoing commitment to supporting Ethereum’s client diversity. It is an essential step toward ensuring the network’s security, decentralization, and resilience.

In an update shared by Coinbase Wallet, the company revealed that it has successfully completed work on remote signers for the Lighthouse client. This implementation includes double-signing protection via high-watermark software, a critical step that allows for more secure and distributed validator management. As a result, Coinbase’s validators are now roughly evenly distributed between the Prysm and Lighthouse clients.

Coinbase Hits 65% Non-Prysm Validators: Ethereum’s Client Diversity

Perhaps most notably, Coinbase has reached a new milestone: 65% of its Ethereum validators now operate on non-Prysm clients. This shift addresses a longstanding concern in the Ethereum community, where reliance on Prysm—at one point supporting over two-thirds of all validators—posed a significant risk to the network’s health.

Ethereum clients are essential components of its decentralized infrastructure. These software implementations govern how nodes communicate, sync, and interact with the blockchain. With Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake, full nodes now require both consensus and execution clients. Prysm, Lighthouse, Teku, Nimbus, Grandine, and Lodestar are the six primary consensus clients, and diversity among them is vital to prevent network failures and validator penalties.

Client concentration above 33% on any single implementation increases the risk of bugs or attacks leading to chain finality issues or loss of data integrity. By proactively shifting to a more balanced validator distribution, Coinbase is helping mitigate these threats and strengthen Ethereum’s resilience.

So, looking ahead, Coinbase Cloud plans to explore support for additional consensus and execution clients, implement validator ratings, and integrate distributed validator technologies. These steps reflect Coinbase’s mission to promote decentralization and empower secure participation in the Ethereum ecosystem.

With these actions, Coinbase not only supports its customers but also contributes meaningfully to Ethereum’s long-term sustainability and decentralization.

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