Since the Shapella upgrade in April, the number of ETH pledged has continued to hit new highs, and the number of ETH locked exceeded 23 million in June.
According to analytics firm Nansen, there are 23.3 million ether (ETH) coins in total bet on As of June 27, that totals $43.1 billion at the time of writing, or nearly 20% of the current $220 billion ETH supply.In contrast, Solana (SOL) currently has Pledge ratio 70.58%.
In the Ethereum blockchain network, staking refers to the process of verifying transactions. To gain validator status and secure the network, users lock (stake) their native ETH tokens and are rewarded for doing so.
The Ethereum blockchain completed its Shapella hard fork on April 12, allowing validators to withdraw staked ether from the beacon chain. In the first week of withdrawals, validators withdrew over 1 million ETH. Since then, the upgrade has resulted in an increase in ETH stake.
“Shanghai’s upgrade essentially removes this risk by allowing users to stake and unstake at will. As a result of this de-risking, we’ve seen a surge in the amount of ETH staked and, as expected, staked on the network The network is rapidly catching up to rival chains like Solana in terms of the percentage of native tokens on it. That’s a very healthy sign for ethereum,” Dave Weisberger, CEO of algorithmic trading platform CoinRoutes, told Cointelegraph.
Ethereum staking has also drawn attention from regulators, with its future in the U.S. uncertain, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tightening rules for cryptocurrency companies offering staking services.
In February, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken settled with the SEC for $30 million and shut down its staking services for U.S. customers. The service qualifies as an offer of securities under the SEC and the exchange should have obtained the proper license to operate the service. Recently, regulators took action against Coinbase’s staking program, which it claims offers securities.
The United States is home to the majority of node operators on the Ethereum blockchain, housing 48% of all validators.
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