Ethereum’s staking deposit contract reach $30 billion in value last week. As of writing, the said contract address reaches 17.77 million ETH marking a new milestone. On March 14, the total value of staked ETH reached $30 billion. However, the following day, changes in market prices led to a decrease in the value of the contract.
On March 17, the same staking deposit contract address saw an increase in value, reaching a high of $31.76 billion. This was the highest value recorded since May 8, 2022. The all-time high was recorded on November 8, 2021, with a value of $39.49 billion. The total deposit during that time was 8,208,674 ETH, trading at $4810 a piece.
Last September, Ethereum underwent a significant change in its consensus mechanism, moving away from the Proof of Work (PoW) model and transitioning to Proof of Stake (PoS) in an event called the Merge. This switch introduced validators as the new mechanism for verifying transactions and adding blocks to the blockchain, replacing miners. Validators were required to stake 32 ETH as collateral to participate in the network and receive rewards for their contributions.
On April 12, Ethereum will complete its transition to a proof-of-stake network with the Shanghai upgrade, allowing for staked ETH withdrawals. This follows the recent announcement from All Core Developers Execution Layer #157 call. Despite the upcoming upgrade, deposits to the staking deposit contract continue to increase.
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