Ethereum

Ethereum Beacon Chain Exceeds 300K Validators, More Than $28 Billion in Ether deposits Locked

The Ethereum protocol has reached another milestone as the number of Ethereum 2.0 validators has surpassed 300,000. At the time of writing, the Ethereum 2.0 contract has over 9.6 million ether deposited worth more than $28.4 billion.

Ethereum Beacon Chain Validators Jump Past the 300,000 Mark

For quite some time now, Ethereum (ETH) network participants have been preparing to transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) system to a protocol that solely relies on the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.

The Ethereum community has been using a parallel system which leverages PoW 05303 and PoS (via the Beacon chain). Eventually, PoW will be phased-out. Ethereum’s (ETH) value increased 107% year to date and ether is up 14.1% during the last two weeks. The cost to become a validator today is 32 ether or $94,400 using current ETH exchange rates.

The number of Ethereum 2.0 validators has just surpassed a milestone jumping over 300K to 300,702 validators as of February 28. The number of validators has increased by 9.5% since the beginning of the year. 11% from 275,594 validators. Currently, the Ethereum 2.0 smart contract holds 9. 68 million in ether deposits worth over $28.4 billion today. Deposits are added regularly every single day into the deposit contract in exact amounts of 32 ether per deposit.

The Beacon chain was launched in December 2020 during Ethereum’s Serenity upgrade and there are two different types of validators called proposers and attestors. While proposers help to create new blocks, the attestor confirms that the transactions have been validated. Instead of receiving ethereum block rewards from pools of miners, validators get rewarded for stakes via the Beacon Chain.

Ethereum’s Hashrate Coasts Along at Record Highs, Arrow Glacier Delays Mining Difficulty Bomb

Currently, the Ethereum network’s top ethereum mining pool operators are at their highest level during its lifetime. Ethereum’s overall hashrate today is 1. 08 petahash per second (PH/s) or 1,082,043,832,616,262 hashes per second (H/s). Calculating hashrate is done by taking the average ether block times and the network’s mining difficulty into account.

While the number of deposits and ETH validators grow, no one is certain about exactly when the full transition to a PoS-based Ethereum 2.0 system will happen. In December 2021, the Arrow Glacier delay the mining difficulty bomb, which would have made it so miners could not mine via PoW. The difficulty bomb or motivated transition to PoS was delayed until June 2022.

This story contains tags

Beacon Chain, Beacon Chain validators, Consensus change, difficulty bomb, ETH, ETH 2.0 validators, ether, Ether PoS, Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum 2.0 validators, Ethereum protocol, Hashrate, PoS, PoS transition, PoW, PoW to PoS, technology, Validators

What do you think about the 300K Ethereum validator milestone? What are your thoughts on the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 transaction? Comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Ethereum

Ethereum Price Analysis: What’s Ahead for ETH After a 9% Weekly Dip?

Ethereum currently rests at a notable support region near $3.2K, with market participants closely observing the potential for a bullish rebound.

The Funding Rates metric offers valuable insights into the sentiment within the perpetual futures markets, helping to gauge the likelihood of a recovery.

Technical Analysis

By Shayan

The Daily Chart

Ethereum has seen consistent declines following its rejection at the $4K resistance level, indicating the dominance of sellers. Most recently, another sharp decline pushed the price toward a substantial support zone, defined by the 100-day moving average of $3.1K.

This dynamic support is critical as demand concentration near this region is expected to curb downward momentum, with a bullish rebound being plausible if buying interest emerges.

Currently, ETH is trapped between the 100-day MA ($3.1K) and the $3.5K resistance level, forming a tight consolidation range. A decisive move in either direction will likely determine the mid-term trend.

The 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour timeframe, Ethereum broke down from an ascending wedge pattern, a bearish structure that typically signals further declines. This breakdown triggered a swift sell-off, pushing the price toward a support zone defined by the 0.5-0.618 Fibonacci retracement levels.

This support zone has the potential to stabilize the price and possibly initiate a short-term bullish rebound. However, persistent bearish pressure could result in a break below this line, intensifying the downtrend.

If Ethereum breaches this critical support zone, it may trigger panic selling, further strengthening sellers’ dominance. Conversely, a sustained rebound could pave the way for a recovery toward the $3.5K resistance level.

Onchain Analysis

By Shayan

Examining the chart, the recent market correction has coincided with a significant decline in funding rates. This shift suggests growing bearish sentiment among speculators, with many traders betting on further decreases in ETH’s price.

However, upon reaching the substantial support zone at $3K, the Funding Rates metric has started to show signs of recovery. A notable bullish spike in the metric suggests an influx of buying interest as market participants begin to open long positions in anticipation of a price rebound.

If this recovery in funding rates continues, it could indicate sustained demand and the potential for a bullish rebound from the $3K support. On the other hand, if the current recovery loses momentum or reverses, it would signal a return to bearish sentiment, paving the way for a deeper correction.

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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

Ethereum

Bitcoin Price Stalls at $94K, Ethereum Struggles to Maintain $3.2K (Weekend Watch)

Bitcoin’s volatile end of the week resulted in a price drop toward $91,000 and a subsequent surge to $96,000 before the asset calmed roughly in the middle.

The altcoins continue to struggle as SOL, ADA, and AVAX have charted 4% daily declines.

BTC Calms at $94K

It was nothing short of a volatile rollercoaster of a week for the primary cryptocurrency. It all started quite promising after the most recent MicroStrategy purchase on Monday, as the asset flew past $100,000 for the first time this year and kept climbing on Tuesday morning to over $102,000.

However, that’s when the landscape changed, and BTC slumped hard later that day, and on Wednesday, it slumped to $96,000. Although that was a painful correction on its own, bitcoin kept plunging in the following days to $91,200 (on Bitstamp) on Thursday, which became its lowest price tag in over a month.

The bulls managed to intervene at this point and pushed BTC north. More volatility ensued with several big moves that eventually pushed the asset to $96,000. However, it failed there and has lost almost two grand since then to trade at $94,000 as of now.

Its market cap has risen to just under $1.870 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts is up to 54.5%.

ADA, SOL Struggle

Most altcoins are in the red today as well. Ethereum slipped below $3,200 on Thursday, and even though it managed to recover some ground since that low is close to breaking below it now after a 2.3% daily decline. XRP is among the few alts with minor gains today.

In contrast, SOL, ADA, SUI, AVAX, and LINK continue to lose value, with losses of up to 4%. SOL is well below $190 now, while ADA is just over $0.9. More painful losses come from OM, ICP, and RNDR from the larger cap alts.

The total crypto market cap has lost some steam since yesterday and is down to $3.43 trillion on CG.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto

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Ethereum

Weekly Bitcoin, Ethereum ETF Insights: The Highs, Lows, and Key Takeaways

After struggling at the end of the year with numerous consecutive days of net outflows, the spot Bitcoin ETFs in the States finally registered some notable inflows on Friday.

The Ethereum counterparts sit in the opposite corner, as they have been mostly in the green since mid-December despite the FOMC aftermath on the entire market.

BTC ETFs Are Back

The latest FOMC meeting that took place in mid-December had a dramatic and immediate effect on US-based investors in terms of their Bitcoin-related activities. Following a superb streak after the presidential elections in which they poured billions of dollars within weeks into the regulated BTC financial vehicles, they did a 180-turn and started taking funds out.

December 19 was the worst day in terms of daily net outflows, with $671.9 million taken out. By January 2, seven out of the nine trading days were in the red, with a total withdrawn amount of roughly $2 billion.

This negative streak was finally broken on Friday as the spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $908.1 million in net inflows. Fidelity’s FBTC led the pack with $357 million, followed by BlackRock’s IBIT at $253.1 million and Ark Invest’s ARKB at $222.6 million. No fund recorded any outflows.

Friday’s numbers were so impressive that they managed to turn the whole week around. After the $415.1 million withdrawn on Monday and $242.3 million on Thursday, the week ended in the green with $256 million in net inflows, given the minor $5.3 million on Tuesday.

BTC’s price actions within the same week were quite volatile as the asset slumped hard on Monday amid the massive outflows to $91,300. However, it pumped to almost $99,000 later during the week as the inflows returned.

Ethereum ETFs’ Landscape

Unlike the BTC ETFs, the funds tracking Ethereum saw fewer days in the red after the aforementioned Fed meeting. Withdrawals were observed on December 19 and 20, but investors started to pour funds into them in the following days.

The past week was less positive, though, as net outflows dominated. $55.5 million was withdrawn on Monday and $77.5 million on Thursday. The $36 million in net inflows on Tuesday and $58.9 million on Friday couldn’t make up the difference, and the week ended with $36.1 million in the red.

ETH’s price tumbled hard on Monday as well but is 6.5% up on a weekly scale, which is more than double the increase for BTC. As of press time, Ethereum’s native token stands above $3,600.

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