ETH 2.0 now has 10 times more Ether locked up to power its proof-of-stake mechanism than the Ethereum Foundation required at its launch six months ago.
Ethereum 2.0 is approaching what some are calling a major milestone in its short history: 6 million Ether (ETH) in staking. Ethereum Launchpad, Ethereum 2.0's portal for validators to blockchain their coins, shows some 5.9 million Ether in staking and nearly 180,000 validators powering the blockchain on Wednesday.
This is an average of just over the minimum 32 Ethers staked needed to activate validation software and become a validator node on the network. This represents an investment of USD 66,560 to participate as a validator on the network at the average price of cryptocurrency exchanges at the time of writing.
ETH rebounded this week after regaining the USD 2,000 level, holding above key support at USD 2,080 as of mid-afternoon Monday (UTC). Traders and investors are bullish on Ether as they anxiously await the London hard fork scheduled for July.
At the current price level, the 5.9 million Ether in staking has an exchange value of about USD 12.29 billion. That figure represents the amount of money that nearly 180,000 validators have held in escrow, for a chance to power the blockchain.
This qualifies them as bona fide participants in the network, with an interest in following the rules and keeping behavior and malware off the Ethereum network.
