Crypto News Update: January 25, 2024
Ethereum 2.0 staking surpasses $10 billion as ETH price hits new high
Ethereum 2.0, the long-awaited upgrade to the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has reached a new milestone as the total amount of ETH locked in staking contracts exceeds $10 billion.
This represents more than 3.6 million ETH, or about 3.1% of the total supply, that are being staked by validators who run nodes to secure the network and earn rewards.
The surge in staking coincides with the rise in ETH price, which has reached a new all-time high of $2,786 on January 25, 2024.
The price increase is driven by several factors, including the growing demand for decentralized applications (dApps) that run on Ethereum, the anticipation of lower fees and higher scalability with Ethereum 2.0, and the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that offer various financial services without intermediaries.
Ethereum 2.0 is expected to launch in phases, with the first phase (Phase 0) already live since December 1, 2020. Phase 0 introduced the Beacon Chain, which is the backbone of the new proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism that replaced the proof-of-work (PoW) system.
What do you think of Ethereum staking and its impact on the crypto market?
$ETH