According to recent data, the amount of ETH locked in the ETH 2.0 deposit contract has reached over five million, marking a major event for the Etherum community.

Data from Dune Analytics shows 5,223,042 ETH —$14 billion at press time— has been sent to the ETH 2.0 contract. The lock-up amount is nearly 1,000% of the original 524,000 ETH threshold, which was the minimum needed to move forward with the staking process.

There are currently 27,132 “unique depositors,” and 152,000 validators processing blocks on ETH 2.0, having a 99% success rate for blocks and 1% missed blocks per day. Those staking can receive rewards of up to 23% but can only withdraw once phase 1.5 of ETH 2.0 goes live. However, annual yields remain unknown, and current stakers are not earning any interests in their locked up ETH.

Ethereum’s Shift Towards PoS

Ethereum’s shift from Proof of Work (PoW) towards Proof of Stake (PoS) means significant changes for the network, making it an eco-friendly ecosystem. Proof of Stake will also allow anyone with at least 32 ETH to stake and become validators, processing transactions instead of miners.

ETH 2.0 will address some of the inherent issues on the Ethereum network, like high fees and scalability. As reported yesterday, Ethereum’s fees have lowered in the past few weeks, with the average transaction cost being around $5.9 (0.0023 ETH) —the lowest level since mid-January 2021.

A Solution for Environmental Issues 

Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, said that the PoS consensus could shrink cryptocurrencies’ carbon footprint in the long run.

“Proof-of-stake is a solution to the environmental issues of Bitcoin, which needs far less resources to maintain,” — said Buterin at the StartmeupHK virtual festival in Hong Kong.

The lock-up is a sign of the community’s positive sentiment towards an eco-friendlier system. PoW’s environmental concerns have been heavily criticized, leading to Tesla stopping BTC payments last month.