ETH 2.0 staking contract crosses the $10 billion mark as Ethereum sets new ATH
The total value of Ethereum in the ETH 2.0 staking contract has surpassed $10 billion following the digital asset’s rally to a new all-time high.
According to data on Eth2 Launchpad, the Ethereum Foundation’s way to stake tokens into the official deposit contract, the number of Ethereum in the staking contract has surpassed 4 million ETH. And with the digital asset breaching $2,600, the total value of Ethereum in the contract is worth over $10.4 billion. As of press time, Ethereum was exchanging hands at around $2,618.
The increase in the number of Ethereum in the staking contract is an indication that more people are staking the cryptocurrency to earn rewards. This may not be unconnected to the recent Berlin upgrade and the upcoming EIP-1559. Investors are generally bullish about the future of the leading altcoin. There were a total of 122,134validators as of April 22, 2021.
Scale or die
One of the major drawbacks of the Ethereum network has been high gas fees. The problem became so severe last year that some projects were forced to either shut down or migrate to other blockchains such as Binance Smart Chain.
Although fees are still very high, Ethereum devs began the move to transition to a more scalable and robust network in December. On December 1, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade went live, marking the network’s from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus.
The move has been met with a lot of positive support from the ETH community based on the rate of activity on the network. For instance, two weeks after the launch, demand for staking spots already outstripped supply. Furthermore, the contract saw an inflow of more than 1 million ETH within the first week of its launch.
Ethereum is still boss
While some other blockchain protocols may have earned the title of “Ethereum killer,” non has been able to displace the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Ethereum remains a cornerstone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) segments. The asset’s recent rally to a new high is directly linked to its usage in the DeFi and NFT ecosystems. Following improvements in the network, DeFi markets have witnessed some boost in activity.
Confidence in Ethereum is growing as it slowly transitions to PoS. Some industry participants have even set their price targets at $20,000 per coin.
