According to Cointelegraph: The quantity of staked Ethereum in the Beacon Chain has reached 30,206,801 ETH, valued at over $85 billion. This locks up almost 25% of the total circulating Ether supply, with nearly one million active validators participating in the Beacon Chain.
February has been a bullish month for Ethereum with investors depositing 600,000 ETH into Ethereum 2.0 staking contracts between February 1 and February 15. The surge in ETH price to yearly highs above $2,800 was also seen this month. A quarter of the circulating supply now locked in the proof-of-stake contracts is perceived as a positive sign for the Ethereum network, enhancing the network’s security and efficiency while reducing the amount of ETH available for trading on exchanges.
The Beacon Chain incorporated proof-of-stake into Ethereum's ecosystem when it integrated with the original Ethereum proof-of-work chain in September 2022, thereby permitting validators to stake ETH. The annual rewards rate for ETH stakers is currently at 4%.
Since the initiation of the Beacon Chain with 21,063 validators, the network now has over 900,000 validators. Much of the demand from validators to withdraw their staked ETH, which was expected post the Shanghai upgrade in April 2023, was offset by new staked ETH, indicating validators’ inclination to restake their ETH for the passive income.
With the recent uptick in ETH prices and the speculation around the approval of spot Ether exchange-traded funds by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the second-largest cryptocurrency could potentially witness a significant market impact, especially with institutional demand adding to the decreasing market supply.
