Ethereum 2.0 is one of the most anticipated updates in the history of crypto. In that sense, it’s a lot like Cyberpunk 2077, hopefully minus the big disappointment. At this point, the pressure on the proof of work cryptocurrencies continues to rise and Ethereum 2.0 must take place this year. For one thing, the EU is still pushing a proposed ban on gas guzzlers especially ETH. But also, competitors are offering better performance from every single aspect. Thankfully, Ethereum 2.0 is set to release this year and investors have already staked a massive amount into deposit contracts.
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Ethereum 2.0 Stakes
The leading smart contracts platform is now making the anticipated move to make the evolutionary step. Ethereum 2.0 has investors interested as tens of millions of ETH is now staked in the network.
Currently, over 10 million Ether is locked onto the contract. In total, this is worth more than $26 billion and it continues to grow by the hour. You can see the live data available on Ethereum search engine EtherScan.
The Ethereum network has long been suffering from high gas fees and limited scalability. Furthermore, the wave of criticism toward proof of work has also been gaining traction since last year. Ethereum 2.0 will essentially be the migration from proof of work to proof of stake. However, this is as big as a challenge as it could get. Ethereum is the leading smart contracts platform and ETH is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. And yes, the stakes are high for this upgrade.
The Stakeholders
Interestingly, the market intelligence firm Glassnode has found the majority of funds are deposited by exchanges and staking services. Basically, not many individual investors have made the move. But, while this news gets out, that might change very quickly.
As for the biggest contributors, Lido with 22% and Coinbase at 15% have made the largest deposits. Lido is an Ethereum-based liquid staking solution staking platform. Also, other big names such as Binance and Kraken are also in the list.
IntoTheBlock, the crypto analytics firm has also found that tens of thousands of unique addresses contributed to the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contracts.
“The amount of ETH staked in the 2.0 contract has surpassed the $10 million mark.
More than 65,910 unique addresses have contributed to this achievement, which translates into 8.4% of the circulating supply staked.”
Although the exact time remains uncertain, Ethereum 2.0 is set to roll out sometime in 2022. In the meantime, competitors like Solana, Cardano and Polkadot are closing in on ETH.
