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Validator withdrawal has now been enabled!

Gnosis Chain underwent Shanghai/Capella Hardfork successfully on August 1 2023, 11:34:20 UTC (slot 10 379 264, epoch 648 704).

What is Validator Withdrawal?

Validator withdrawal moves a validator’s balance from the Beacon Chain to the Execution Layer, paid out in GNO to the validator’s withdrawal address — the execution address recorded in the validator’s withdrawal credentials.

There are three kinds of withdrawals:

TypeTriggerWhat happens?
Partial — automatic sweepAutomaticAny balance above the validator’s maximum effective balance (1 GNO with 0x01, 64 GNO with 0x02) is swept to the deposit contract, ready to claim.
Partial — on requestThe withdrawal address submits an EIP‑7002 withdrawal request. Requires 0x02 credentials.The requested amount is queued and swept to the deposit contract, ready to claim, down to the 1 GNO activation minimum.
FullValidator signs and broadcasts a voluntary_exit, or the withdrawal address submits an EIP‑7002 full‑exit request (both irreversible)The entire balance is swept to the deposit contract, ready to claim. See timing for what to expect.

What is the difference between validator withdrawal on Gnosis Chain and Ethereum?​

GC vs ETH

  • For users: the experience is identical – funds simply arrive at the withdrawal address.
  • Under the hood: Gnosis Chain uses a smart‑contract (the same address as the deposit contract) to pay out GNO. If the contract temporarily lacks GNO, queued withdrawals are retried once topped up and drained at a fixed rate (4‑16 per slot, TBD).

References

  1. Gnosis Chain Withdrawals spec
  2. Withdrawal Contract

1 · Check your withdrawal credential prefix​

The first byte of a validator’s withdrawal_credentials is its withdrawal prefix. Three prefixes exist on Gnosis Chain:

PrefixBehaviour on Gnosis ChainMax effective balance
0x02Compounding — recommended. Rewards stay in the validator and compound instead of being swept away. Supports validator‑initiated partial withdrawals (EIP‑7002) and can be the target of a consolidation. Can be set at deposit time or switched to later. Available since the Pectra upgrade (30 April 2025).64 GNO
0x01Execution address, auto‑sweep. Any balance above 1 GNO is automatically swept to the deposit contract on a rolling basis, ready to claim. Rewards do not compound, and validator‑initiated partial withdrawals are not available.1 GNO
0x00BLS‑only — no execution address is set, so no withdrawals are possible until you upgrade to 0x01.1 GNO

Why 0x02 exists: the 0x01 sweep is automatic, but it is also unavoidable — it forces everything above 1 GNO out of the validator, so those rewards stop earning. EIP‑7251 raises the ceiling to 64 GNO so rewards compound in place, lets a single validator hold what previously needed 64 of them, and replaces the forced sweep with withdrawals you request when you actually want them.

--eth1_withdrawal_address does not tell you your prefix on its own

In the ETHstaker Deposit CLI — the tool used in the key generation guide — --eth1_withdrawal_address is only an alias for --withdrawal_address. Which prefix you ended up with depends on the tool and the version:

How the keys were generatedPrefix
ETHstaker Deposit CLI v1.2.0 or later (April 2025) with a withdrawal address — compounding is the default0x02
ETHstaker Deposit CLI v1.1.0, or any version run with --regular_withdrawal0x01
Ethereum staking-deposit-cli, Wagyu Key Gen, or the legacy validator-data-generator0x01
No withdrawal address supplied at all0x00

Don’t assume — read the credential itself, as described below.

New validators can be created as 0x02 directly

You do not have to deposit as 0x01 and convert afterwards. The ETHstaker Deposit CLI generates compounding deposit data for Gnosis directly, and the deposit contract has accepted the variable deposit amounts that 0x02 allows since its batchDeposit upgrade (2 May 2025):

./deposit new-mnemonic --chain gnosis \
          --withdrawal_address 0xYourExecAddress \
          --compounding \
          --amount 64

On Gnosis, --amount is denominated in GNO: it defaults to the 1 GNO activation minimum and can go up to 64 GNO. Use partial-deposit to top a validator up later.

How to check

  1. Look up your validator on the Beacon chain explorer → Withdrawal tab, or
  2. Open the validators app and read the Type column (Type 1 = 0x01, Type 2 = 0x02), or
  3. Open the deposit‑m*.json file you saved when staking and examine withdrawal_credentials — the first byte is the prefix.

CheckWC deposit_json

2 · What should I do next?​

  • Still on 0x00? Enable withdrawals — a one‑time step to attach an execution withdrawal address, using ethstaker-deposit-cli.
  • On 0x01 and want compounding rewards / partial withdrawals on request? Enable compounding rewards (0x01 → 0x02) via the validators app or a direct contract call.
  • Already exited, or have a balance sitting in the deposit contract? Head to claiming your GNO — plus how long the whole process typically takes.

Reference material​