30 million Ethereum (ETH), worth nearly $73 million at current prices, has been staked, according to data from analytics firm Nansen. This amount represents 25% of the ETH circulating supply.
Lido Finance remains the major player in Ethereum staking, with 9,471,392 ETH deposited, representing 32% of the total deposits. Lido’s dominance has long been a topic of controversy around the centralization of power in the decentralized ethos of the Ethereum network. However, it’s important to note that Lido’s liquid staking offers accessibility to a wider range of investors who might not otherwise participate in staking due to the high minimum requirements of becoming a full validator on the Ethereum network.
The Merge, which marked a historic transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus, allows more users to join Ethereum’s network. As a result, it boosts the ETH staking ration. In addition to the increased staking ratio, the number of Ethereum validators has also surged from around 488 validators to over 928 validators since the Merge, as reported by Beaconcha.in.
Following the Merge, the Ethereum network completed the Shanghai/Shapella network upgrade in April last year. Initially, there were concerns that the upgrade might lead to selling pressure since it enabled the withdrawal of previously staked ETH. Contrary to this belief, the period post-Shapella upgrade saw an immediate uptick in Ethereum’s price, surpassing $2,000. Although ETH entered a correction in the subsequent months, the selling pressure was still lower than expected, historical data suggests.
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After the Shapella hard fork, Ethereum is heading toward the next milestone – the Dencun upgrade. On Wednesday, Ethereum developers reported that Dencun was successfully deployed on the Holesky testnet. With the upgrade running smoothly on Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky, the Dencun execution on the mainnet is anticipated to happen soon.
Dencun is seen as one of the major catalysts for Ethereum’s price this year. At the time of writing, Ethereum’s price is trading around $2,400, up 2.8% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko’s data.
