The Beacon Chain has seen a surge in Ethereum staking, with the value now exceeding $115 billion. This follows Ethereum’s rally to $3,700 earlier this week. Currently, over 31.5 million Ether, which accounts for 26% of Ethereum’s total supply, is staked on the network’s proof-of-consensus. These stakes have involved over 980,000 individual validators.
This increase in Ethereum staking began after the Shapella upgrade in April 2023, which allowed users and validators to withdraw their funds after the Merge. Contrary to expectations of a price dump, Ethereum actually gained over 11 million ETH from new stakes.
The significant amount of ETH staked on the Beacon Chain signifies economic security and stability under Ethereum’s new Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system. To manipulate the network under PoS, a hacker would need to control at least 50% of the entire validator’s stake, which would require a financial investment of at least $57 billion. This makes attacking the network financially impractical for most exploiters.
On Tuesday, ETH experienced a 5% increase in value and traded above $3,700 for the first time since January 2022. This upward trend coincided with Bitcoin’s rise to within 2.5% of its all-time high before experiencing a setback at $68,500.
The delay by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in approving BlackRock’s Ether spot ETF application did not hinder Ethereum’s rally. Market analysts had already anticipated this move by the US regulator, so investors were not surprised. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is still approximately 23% away from its all-time high of $4,805. If an Ether spot ETF is approved in May, it could potentially trigger a bullish market similar to what was seen with Bitcoin.
Tags: Ether (ETH), Ethereum
