With the recent market dips, staking has become popular among investors. Whenever the market crashes, investors would turn to staking as a passive way of earning income while waiting for the market to recover. Through staking, investors protect their crypto-assets from sell-offs which would mean huge losses. Today, staking has turned into one of the most lucrative investments in the crypto industry.
The pack was led by “eth-killer” SOL (Solana) with a total staked value of more than $40 billion. And yes, ETH (Ethereum) is back on the second after momentarily being taken over by one of its competitors, LUNA (Terra) a native token of the Terra network. On Mar. 2, in a report by Coindesk, ETH (ethereum) staked value was only at $28,231,287,739 as compared to LUNA (Terra) at more than $30 billion. But what was the reason behind LUNA (Terra) surpassing ETH (ethereum)? As further stated in the report, this can be attributed to the surge in the price of the “eth-killer”. The strong fundamentals and positive sentiments within the Terra community are said to have contributed to its price rally. On Mar. 9, LUNA (Terra) increased by 25% and recorded an all-time high with its price at $104.58. To date, LUNA (Terra) has been one of the top-performing altcoins among its competitors including ETH (Ethereum). No minimum amount is required for both delegating or running a LUNA validator node which could be attractive to stakers. As a delegator, the annualized reward rate (APR) is 5.69% while validators receive 6.33% APR. For both, the lock-up period is 21 days with a 10% average commission rate. Orion.Money holds the biggest chunk of staked crypto-asset with a total amount of $1,321,549,462 which offers 6.01%. Currently, there are 130 platforms where you can stake LUNA (Terra) tokens. In data by Staking Rewards, LUNA (Terra)’s staked value is down at $26,862,731,117 and has declined by 10.4% from its previous staked value. Now, let’s take a look at the reasons why ETH (ethereum) regained its previous spot.
From proof-of-work, the most preferred network by investors and developers has shifted to proof-of-stake with the launching of the ETH 2.0. The network has been plagued by issues of scalability, interoperability, and bloating gas fees. But with its recent upgrade to 2.0, the network is expected to resolve all these issues. In December 2020, the testing stage of phase 0, the first stage for ETH 2.0 was launched after the 524,288 ETH required deposit was met. When the Ethereum staking was first launched, the price of the altcoin was only less than $400 as compared to its price today of more than $3,000. After phase 0, there will be two more stages before the ETH 2.0 full release which is expected to happen later in 2023. After the completion of phase 0, Ethereum 2.0’s Beacon Chain will follow which will enable full staking.
With the ETH 2.0 just around the corner, it is expected that the price of ETH (ethereum) will spike. This has moved crypto whales to accumulate more ETH (ethereum) to prepare for the most anticipated price rally. And this played a pivotal role in the rise of ETH (ethereum) staked value. You can stake ETH (ethereum) through staking pools or as a validator. With staking pools, no minimum amount of ETH (ethereum) is required and stakers receive a 4.48% reward. But as a validator, a minimum of 32 ETH is required and would entitle you to a 5.03% reward with a lock-up period of 365 days or 1 year. The increase in the number of Ethereum validators will bolster the network’s security and would guarantee its safety from possible cybersecurity attacks by bad actors lurking in the crypto space. In data by Staking Rewards, ETH (ethereum) total value locked is now at a staggering $33,427,265,434 recording an increase of 19.38% from its previous staked value making it the second most staked crypto, again.
You might be wondering, what are the top platforms to stake ETH (ethereum)? Here’s a list of the leading platforms you may find ideal to stake your ETH (ethereum).
- Coinbase
- Kraken
- Binance
- Bitfinex
- Lido
- Poloniex
In recent data by Crypto.co, ETH (ethereum) has now reached a market cap of $362,336,891,795 with its price at $3,034.22. The price of the cryptocurrency is expected to reach $6,500 to as much as $7,500 by the end of 2022. And with the full release of the ETH 2.0 by the end of 2023, expect the price to spike even more. Staking your ETH (ethereum) can be a wise move while waiting for the price its price to increase but could also be a safe haven especially if the market is down.
