According to recent data, the total amount of ether (ETH) locked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract is rapidly approaching the nine million mark. This means that more than 7% of the total ETH supply is currently staked in the ETH 2.0 contract.
Recent data from Glassnode revealed that the amount locked had reached an all-time high of 8,875,394 ETH, worth over $33.7 billion at current market prices. The figure represents a 70% increase since June last year and more than 1,500% from the initial target of 524,000 ETH needed for phase 0.
The total number of unique depositors has also more than doubled within the last six months, jumping from 27,132 in June to 59,867 at the time of writing. More validators have also joined the network, with the figure moving from 152,000 validators in June to 276,197 validators at present despite the current annual yield being a mere 5%.
The increasing number of unique depositors, validators, and the ETH balance on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract is an indicator that investors and the Ethereum community are bullish on the native token in the long term. This is evident as both deposits and rewards can only be withdrawn after phase 1.5 of the network upgrade goes live.
A report in August also noted that whales are also locking up their ether, with over 95,000 ETH staked in a single day.
Meanwhile, as users continue to stay bullish, Ethereum developers are working round the clock to make ETH 2.0 a reality. With phase 0 already completed in late 2020, the Altair upgrade on the Beacon Chain was successfully deployed in October 2021.
Although a recent report revealed that the upcoming transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) could expose the Ethereum network to potential attacks, one developer claims otherwise. He reassured the community that the merger will be safe while outlining a possible fix before the event, which is expected to take place in Q1 or Q2, 2022.