By Solomon Odunayo
According to the data provided by Etherscan.io, 1,000,000 ETH worth more than $600,000,000 at press time, has been locked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposits contract, four days after the Beacon Chain rollout.
The system would start rewarding stakers after the launch of other phases and the staked amounts are unlocked for withdrawals. Howbeit, there is still no specification regarding the annual yield on these staked funds.
The ETH locked up is an essential part of the process meant to move the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoS) consensus algorithm to proof-of-stake (PoS).
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Eth2 has received its millionth ETH! 🚀https://t.co/3HXdJ7Mfv7 pic.twitter.com/IpPMztclRW
— Etherscan.io (@etherscan) December 4, 2020
The notable upgrade is also expected to make Ethereum faster and scalable, which would result in a drastic reduction in ETH transaction or gas fee.
Initially, the much-anticipated staking launch was met with a poor response, with just 50,000 ETH deposits in the first week and 3,200 ETH of that came from the co-creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin.
However, the deposit contract address received tons of contributions a few days to the deadline, which pushed the deposits above the minimum required 524,000 ETH. But the required amount was not accumulated so easily without the intervention of a number of Ethereum whales, such as a lending protocol Celsius Network that reportedly contributed 25,000 ETH, and other large token holders and crypto funds.
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As of today, the staked funds are 116% higher than the network required, as per on-chain analytics firm Dune Analytics. The amount consists of a total of 3,028 depositors, who staked a minimum of 32 ETH each. Although the presence of pooling services like Stakefish may mean the number of depositors was higher.
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