Ethereum network support is growing by the day. The number of ETH being staked ahead of ETH 2.0 quickly surpassed over 5% of all ETH in circulation. The number has now grown even higher. With the number of validators on the Ethereum network already exceeding 200,000.
Another milestone that has now been broken is the staking address of ETH is now the highest holder of ETH. This used to be the address for wrapped ETH which is used in DeFi. But with the growing number of stakers, ETH 2.0 has quickly surpassed wrapped ETH. The network adoption grows as ETH 2.0. Although a release date has not been set yet.
Related Reading | Ethereum Continues To Maintain Momentum As Total ETH Burned Nears $100 Million
ETA has been put to be in 2022. This means that the network still has about a year ahead before the launch. And this gives holders more time to get into the game of staking before then. It is important to note that about of ETH currently staked is staked on crypto exchanges. With the largest amount of staked ETH being on the Kraken crypto exchange.
Ethereum London Hard Fork
The London Hard Fork which took place on August 5th was important in getting to ETH 2.0. A fee burn mechanism was implemented with the hard fork – the Ethereum EIP-1559. So far, this fee burn mechanism has burned over 50,000 ETH and counting.
Related Reading | By The Numbers: How EIP-1559 Has Impacted Ethereum Thus Far
The hard fork being implemented on the scheduled date shows that the project is on track. The full merge which will happen in 2022 will see a complete overhaul of the Ethereum network. The network will become highly scalable with this. While providing faster and more efficient transactions.
What’s more, the move to ETH 2.0 will see the network use significantly less energy for mining. Proof of stake does not require supercomputers to carry out computations. Hence, the new mining mechanism will see about 99.95% less energy usage. Solving the bottleneck of high energy consumption when it comes to cryptocurrency mining.
ETH Price Still Holding Up
While the Ethereum network records milestones, ETH’s price has not disappointed in the same regard. The price recently hit $3,000 for the first time in over two months. And since then, ETH has not relented. Holding steady at the $3,000 price range, despite experiencing multiple dips along the way.
ETH price holds at $3,000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Sentiments in the market continue to skew towards buy. Which is one of the biggest indicators of a bull rally that is going to continue. Inflows remain lower than outflows on exchanges. Showing strong hold sentiment amongst investors.
The price of ETH is currently trading at $3,284 at the time of this writing. Down 0.98% in the past 24 hours. While the market cap sits at $383 billion.
Featured image from Ledger Insights, chart from TradingView.com