What is slashing in crypto staking?

Slashing in crypto is a penalty that a proof-of-stake network applies to a validator that breaks certain rules, destroying part of the coins it has staked. It exists to make attacks on the chain expensive. For most people who stake, slashing is a low-probability but real risk, and how it works depends on the network.

What is slashing in crypto staking?

In proof of stake, validators lock up coins as collateral and earn rewards for proposing and confirming blocks. If a validator signs messages that could help rewrite history or split the chain, the network can prove it and burn some of that collateral. This is different from small penalties for being offline, which simply cancel out rewards a validator would have earned.

How does Ethereum slashing work?

According to ethereum.org, a validator can be slashed for proposing two different blocks for the same slot, or for casting conflicting attestations, including ones that "surround" an earlier vote.

The penalty has several parts. For a 32 ETH validator, 0.0078125 ETH is burned immediately, scaled to its balance. The validator is then forced to exit, a process that takes 36 days, during which its stake slowly drains. Halfway through, on day 18, a correlation penalty applies. It grows with the total stake slashed in the surrounding period, so an isolated mistake costs little, while a mass slashing can wipe out a validator's full balance.

Ethereum also has a separate inactivity leak. If the chain fails to finalise for more than four epochs, offline validators lose stake until honest, active validators again hold over two-thirds of the total.

How big is the slashing penalty on other chains?

Networks set their own rules. The Cosmos SDK's slashing module, used by many Cosmos-based chains, punishes double signing and extended downtime. Its documentation lists example settings of 5% for double signing and 1% for downtime, though each chain sets live values. Double signing also "tombstones" a validator so it can never rejoin, while downtime leads to a temporary jail. The docs state that delegators' stake is slashed along with the validator's.

Solana's documentation says, as of November 2026, that there is no in-protocol implementation of slashing, though it describes slashing as a possible future feature.

What is the crypto slashing risk for regular stakers?

Most slashing events come from validator setup errors, such as running the same keys on two machines at once, rather than deliberate attacks. If you delegate or use a staking service, the operator's practices matter. On chains where delegated stake can be slashed, a validator's mistake can reduce your balance too.

Pooled products such as liquid staking spread this risk across many validators but do not remove it, and each provider handles losses differently. For a wider look at staking risks, including lockups and platform risk, see is staking crypto safe.