June Sees Over 23 Million ETH Staked – Nansen’s Report

The Increase of Ether Staking

The amount of Ether staked has been steadily increasing since the Shapella upgrade in April, and has now surpassed 23 million Ether in June.

As of June 27th, Nansen analytics firm reported that 23.3 million Ether (ETH) had been staked, which was valued at $43.1 billion and made up almost 20% of the total ETH supply of $220 billion. In comparison, the staking ratio of Solana (SOL) is currently at 70.58%.

In the Ethereum blockchain network, staking is the action of validating transactions. To gain validator status and secure the network, users must stake their ETH tokens, and as a result, they are rewarded.

On April 12, the Ethereum blockchain successfully completed its Shapella hard fork, permitting validators to take out their staked Ether from the Beacon Chain. In the first week of withdrawals, validators removed in excess of one million ETH. As a result of the upgrade, ETH stake has increased since then.

“The introduction of the Shanghai upgrade allowed users to stake and unstake their ether freely, thus reducing risk and encouraging a surge in staked ether,” said Dave Weisberger, CEO of algorithmic-trading platform CoinRoutes, to Cointelegraph. He went on to say that this is a positive sign for Ethereum, as the network is quickly catching up to rivals such as Solana in terms of the percentage of its native token being staked.

Regulatory Action on Staking Services

Ether’s staking has also sparked the interest of regulatory bodies, leaving its future in the US unclear as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is strengthening regulations for crypto companies providing staking services.

In February, Kraken crypto exchange reached a settlement with the SEC for $30 million and stopped offering staking services to U.S. consumers. According to the SEC, the service was deemed a securities offer and Kraken should have obtained the necessary authorization to run the service. Most recently, the regulator took action against Coinbase’s staking program, accusing it of providing securities.

The United States is the location of the majority of node operators on the Ethereum blockchain, accounting for 48% of all validators.

Magazine: Uncovering the Facts about the ETH Founders’ Separation and Joe Lubin’s ‘Crypto Google’.