More Than 700,000 ETH Staked for Ethereum 2.0 Launch

With the much-anticipated launch of Ethereum 2.0 scheduled for December 1, at 12 pm UTC on the horizon, the number of Ethereum (ETH) locked up in the smart contract needed to transit to a proof-of-stake protocol from the current proof-of-work has surpassed the 700,000 mark, according to leading validator for Proof of Stake blockchains stakefish.

Staking Target surpassed

The validator noted:

“Over 700,000 ETH has already been deposited to launch more than 20,000 ETH 2.0 validators”

This number has already surpassed the target of 524,888 ETH that had to be staked by November 24. Nevertheless, the crypto community had kept fingers crossed as to whether this milestone could be attained because this requirement was enshrined in doubt and speculation.

This journey has not been smooth sailing given that the initial launch of ETH 2.0 was scheduled for February this year, but delays were inevitable. Furthermore, the first week had only 50,000 ETH deposited, and this triggered uncertainty.

Data from on-chain market provider Dune Analytics shows that 2,216 unique depositors have already locked up at least 725,000 ETH for the Ethereum 2.0 launch, and the number continues to grow by the day.

The thrill behind Ethereum 2.0

The unveiling of Ethereum 2.0 is being awaited with bated breath because it will use the proof-of-stake blockchain compared to the current proof-of-work network. The latter requires miners to compete when solving complex mathematical puzzles, with the winner generating the new block.

Nevertheless, the proof-of-stake framework is a consensus algorithm that chooses the next block’s validator based on the amount staked or held. Therefore, the rewards reaped by validating blocks will be determined by how much ETH is staked in the network. If you have staked more Ether into the network, this will also increase your chances of being chosen to stake blocks.

Scalability is expected to increase on Ethereum 2.0, and more energy-efficient solutions are supposed to power cryptocurrency transactions on the new mainnet.

Ethereum has been on a price frenzy even if its value has slightly dropped because of the ETH 2.0 launch and booming decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. New data by Glassnode recently showed that crypto wallets holding more than one ETH hit a record high of 1,170,598 addresses.

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