The number of ETH deposited in the Ethereum 2.0 staking contract has grown to a whopping 3.6 million. With the price of the digital asset exchanging hands at around $1,770, it means that the total value of ETH staked is more than $6.3 billion.
Deposits entering the staking contract have continued to rise, indicating a growing interest in Ethereum. Since the beginning of the year, the contract has welcomed over 1 million ETH. That being said, the ETH 2.0 contract now holds over 3% of Ethereum’s total supply.
Investors are particularly bullish on the upcoming ETH 2.0 upgrade. The transition to a Proof-of-Work algorithm could significantly scale the network and make it more energy-efficient. Some analysts have even predicted that Ethereum could displace Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency in the world once the Eth2 upgrade is complete. Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin has earlier outlined how the changes would roll out in a Reddit post.
Following a complete rollout, the Ethereum network should be able to handle 100,000 transactions per second (tps), as opposed to a current 15 tps.
Launched on December 1, 2020, the ETH 2.0 deposit contract has grown in popularity. Late last year, crypto exchange Kraken disclosed that its users had staked more than 250,000 ETH in the contract.