Validators on the Ethereum network earned a total income of $46 million in the first week of May due to an increase in the staking rewards rate. This resulted in validators earning 24,997 Ether (ETH) in the week, a 40% increase from the previous week's income of $33 million. The recent surge in gas fees due to the popularity of a new memecoin called Pepe has also contributed to higher fee income for validators from processing transactions. Validators on Ethereum are required to stake a minimum of 32 ETH, valued at roughly $58,000, in order to engage in the network's consensus procedure. Since Ethereum's network moved to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism with The Merge last year, ETH staking has gained significant importance among institutions.