Ethereum 2.0 Staking Contract Surpasses 11 Million ETH

Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract is still gaining traction among retail and institutional investors despite ETH’s uncertain price movements. According to Etherscan, a block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum, the crypto community has now staked more than 11 million ETH under the deposit contract of its network upgrade, which is the highest level on record.

Ethereum’s network upgrade, which started officially with Beacon Chain’s launch in the first week of December 2020, witnessed a consistent rise in interest from the crypto community throughout the last 15 months. In the past 12 months, the overall volume of the staked ETH under the deposit contract of Ethereum 2.0 has jumped by more than 250%.

In February 2021, the contract had nearly 3 million coins. In August, the number topped 7 million and increased gradually to hit the level of 10 million during the first week of March 2022. In terms of value, $35.8 billion worth of ETH coins has been staked under the deposit contract.

Ethereum’s Recovery

Earlier this week, the world’s second most valuable digital currency touched the price level of $3,500. In addition, ETH’s overall market cap jumped above $400 billion. Amid the price jump, institutional sentiment regarding Ethereum also changed dramatically. Last week, ETH-related investment products attracted institutional inflows worth $10 million.

“Ethereum has come back to the forefront, as news of a successful merge on the Kiln test net made the estimated June merge (meaning the transition to proof of stake) much more realistic. This transition, if successful, will make Ethereum much more attractive to institutional investors following ESG mandates; it will also lead to a massively reduced supply as ETH will turn into a deflationary asset,” on-chain analytics firm Glassnode noted in its recent report.

Furthermore, ETH whale transfers are surging amid the latest spike in its price.