According to U.Today, the Ethereum network has achieved a significant milestone by reaching one million validators. This announcement was made by Terence Tsao, an Ethereum developer known as 'Terence.eth'. The number of active validators on the Ethereum network has reached 1,000,012, with an additional 14,379 pending validators.
This achievement is accompanied by an impressive figure of approximately 32 million Ethereum staked, which represents around 26% of Ethereum's total supply. This indicates a high level of participation in Ethereum staking, a process that involves depositing 32 ETH to activate validator software.
Validators play a crucial role in the Ethereum network, particularly since its transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in September 2022. They are tasked with storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain. This role was previously performed by miners in the proof-of-work model. The achievement of one million validators signifies the substantial trust and resources that users are willing to invest to keep the Ethereum network operational.
The Shapella upgrade, which facilitated staking withdrawals, has contributed to the increase in the number of validators on the Ethereum network. Currently, the Ethereum network is preparing for new upgrades, with Electra being the consensus layer upgrade name for the next immediate hard fork scheduled on Ethereum. Deneb is the name of the most recent hard fork activated on Ethereum.
At the time of the report, the price of Ethereum was down by 5.139% in the last 24 hours, standing at $3,123. Crypto analyst Ali suggests that Ethereum's price action is encountering resistance at $3,200, where 2.43 million addresses hold 5.14 million ETH.