The users who lock Ether for staking will receive an ROI of 8.9% when the network starts operating. Cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Binance are still among the top staking service providers on the market.
Of the total supply of Ether (ETH) in circulation, 2.7% is locked in Ethereum 2.0. That amount constitutes the staking funds of the network validators.
According to data from the Launchpad.etherum website, the total deposited has already reached 3,100,000 ETH. If Ether is trading above USD 1,800 per unit, then there is a total of USD 6 billion locked in Ethereum 2.0.
The total supply of Ether is currently above 114 million units. Therefore, the new Ethereum blockchain is about to accumulate 3% of all the Ether issued until now. There has been an exponential growth in the funds locked since the launch of the blockchain.
In the creation of Ethereum 2.0 staking pools, the most prominent in number are the unidentified validators who remain anonymous. In other words, they are those people or entities that deposited 32 ETH to put their validator nodes into operation. This group represents 41% of the total funds in staking that are in said blockchain.
Nowadays, the main staking service providers on the market are exchanges like Kraken and Binance. Kraken has 14.82% of all the Ether locked in the new network, while Binance’s pool has 9.69%. Other providers with a significant number of validators include Bitcoin Suisse (with 5.62% of funds in staking), Stacked.us (with 4.77%), and Lido (with 2.87%). These are the best known, but there are already more than 40 staking pools waiting for Ethereum 2.0 to start operations in 2022.
Ethereum 2.0 Seeks to Become the New Mainnet
There has also been an increase in the number of validators that are active to operate. At the end of December, there were just over 40,000 active validators in the blockchain. However, websites like Beaconcha.in now estimate a total of 89,357 active validators and over 6,000 pending confirmation.
All the people who have decided to deposit ethers in the Ethereum Beacon Chain will receive a return on investment (ROI) when the network starts operating. Interest will vary depending on when users deposit their ethers. That is the case for first participants who calculate profits on their funds with an ROI of 16.5. However, at the moment, the network’s interest rate is at 8.9% and continues to decline.
Regardless of the progress, there is still a long way to go before the Ethereum community migrates to its new blockchain is complete. According to the developers’ schedule, the operational stage of Ethereum 2.0 will begin in 2022. However, both networks will continue to exist in parallel and independently until that date arrives.
The Ethereum Beacon Chain still does not recognize the ethers locked in the smart contract for the activation of Ethereum 2.0, since they belong to the 1.0 network. When the Ethereum 1.0 ledger enters the Beacon Chain, the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain will recognize those ethers. Users will then be able to withdraw the locked money along with the rewards that they have obtained.
By Alexander Salazar
