Ethereum is seeing some interesting developments behind the scenes, even though the price hasn’t been doing great lately.
More Than a Quarter of All ETH is Staked
A whopping 30% of all ETH in circulation is now staked, meaning people are locking up their coins to help secure the network. That’s a big increase from January 2024, when only 23.8% was staked.
This shows that people are confident in Ethereum’s long-term future, even though the price has been going down.
Ethereum’s Transition to Proof-of-Stake
Remember when Ethereum switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake? This meant getting rid of those energy-hungry miners and replacing them with validators.
Now, there are over a million validators, all locking up their ETH to keep the network running smoothly.
Ethereum’s Future Looks Bright
Even though the price is struggling, Ethereum is still the second biggest crypto platform after Bitcoin. It’s also the only other crypto project besides Bitcoin to get the green light for a spot ETF from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Plus, developers are constantly working on improvements to make Ethereum faster and more efficient.
EIP 7781: Boosting Ethereum’s Speed
A new proposal called EIP 7781 aims to make Ethereum even faster by reducing the time between transactions and increasing the amount of data that can be processed at once.
This would mean cheaper transactions and a better experience for everyone using Ethereum.
The Challenges of Staking
While all this is great news, there are some challenges. For example, solo stakers will need to upgrade their equipment and internet connections to keep up with the changes.