Live Coverage: Ethereum 2.0 Launch

The total amount of ether locked in the Eth2 deposit contract is nearing 1 million (close to $600 million) after another day of rapid growth. As a result, the APR has dropped another point to 15.7%.

The long-awaited Beacon Chain is finally up and running. The deposit contract holds close to 900,000 ETH at the moment, generating 16.7% APR to stakers.

After a Thanksgiving selloff, Ether, and the crypto market as a whole, has recovered. At the bottom of the slump — on 26 November — ETH dropped down below $500. Afterwards, it took only 3 days for the asset to return to its charge at the $600 wall.

Next Tuesday — 1 December — at precisely 12:00:23 PM UTC, the Beacon Chain genesis will happen, effectively marking the launch of Eth2.

After a swift crossing of the threshold line, Eth2 deposits have subsided, and have somewhat stabilized in the 700 thousands region. At the same time, the price of ETH dropped, overnight, from $600 to $520 — a 12% loss — and marked the end of this month’s bull run.

Starting from 21.6% at 524,288 ETH, the Annual Percentage Return for Eth2 stakers will gradually drop as deposits in the contract grow. At the time, the 640 thousand staked ETH equates to 19.5% APR.

With the threshold reached hours before the deadline, the genesis will happen on December 1, as scheduled. Though the minimum amount of ETH staked has been reached, the deposit contract keeps growing in assets locked, currently holding a little over 610,000 ether.

92,480 ETH remains to be staked before the threshold of 524,288 is reached. The deposit contract started slowly after its deployment nearly 3 weeks ago but gained speed in the past couple of days.

At this pace, the deposit contract threshold of 524,288 ETH is going to be reached soon, possibly before the deadline of November 24. Exactly one week after that, on December 1, the Beacon Chain genesis is expected to occur, marking the official launch of proof of stake on Ethereum.

As the hype surrounding the Beacon Chain genesis grows, so does the price of ether. It’s quickly returning to its glory days from 2017.

We are almost halfway to the threshold of 524,288 ETH as the deposit contract currently holds close to 210,000 ether. December 1 is only 10 days away and it looks like the Beacon Chain genesis will happen as scheduled. Naturally, we expect that deposits of ETH will rise as the launch date approaches.

As the market prepares for Beacon Chain, Bitcoin is leading the latest bull charge, with Ether following closely. The asset has broken $500 for the first time in more than 2 years, but is still far from its all-time high of $1,450.

100,416 ETH have so far been staked on Beacon Chain’s deposit contract, bringing us closer to the 524,288 ETH threshold. About 13 days remain until December 1, which is the date set for the genesis of the new Ethereum 2.0 chain.

The stakes in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract have grown substantially over the past couple of days. After a week’s worth of stagnation, growing at about 3,000 ETH per day, the deposit contract is now holding 88,832 ETH, closing in on the first major milestone of 100,000.

The minimum genesis time for the Beacon Chain is set to December 1 at 12 PM UTC. However, there is a 7 day genesis delay, which means that if you want your stake to be included in the genesis block, you need to make the deposit before November 24, 12 PM UTC.

While Ethereum 2.0 will include the network being split in 64 shards, one of which will be the current chain that is being secured by the proof-of-work algorithm, shards will come with Phase 1, which is expected to launch in 2021.

More than 10% of the required 524,288 ETH have already been staked. More specifically, the deposit contract is currently holding 56,577 ETH. The question still remains though – without a set launch date, will people rush to deposit their ETH to force the Beacon Chain genesis event before the end of the year?

With around 3,000 ETH staked in the deposit contract each day after the initial announcement hype subsided, it will take until March 2021 to reach the required 524,288 ETH. The Ethereum team might want to consider setting a launch date. Right now, most people are likely waiting until we get very close to the threshold before they stake their ETH holdings. No one likes to have their assets frozen, doing nothing, when there’s DeFi platforms out there offering 20% APY.

On Sunday alone the contract has received almost 5,000 ETH in deposits, though it is still far from the 524,288 target mark.

After a bullish Friday, ETH has lost about 5% in the last 24 hours, subsiding to $440. It is not uncommon for the crypto market to lose a few points during the low activity of the weekend.

In half a day, the staked ETH in Ethereum 2.0’s deposit contract has grown by mere 2,500 units. This is far from what is needed if Beacon Chain is to launch before the end of the year.

Ethereum 2.0 will roll out in three phases – Phase 0, Phase 1, and Phase 2. We are currently on the verge of completing Phase 0. It involves the genesis of Beacon Chain, which is the new PoS Ethereum blockchain that will work alongside the current PoW chain, “ensuring there is no break in data continuity”.

At 524,288 staked ETH, the minimum required for the Beacon Chain genesis, annual percentage return will be 21.6%, going down as the deposited ETH grows.

In the couple of days following the announcement of the deposit contract the price of ETH has reacted as expected. It plowed through the $400 barrier easily and continued growing all day long yesterday. It currently stands strong at $460, a 20% increase in a week’s period.

40,000 out of the 524,288 ETH required has already been deposited into the contract. No launch date has yet been set, but as the staked ETH grows, it is expected that the development team will make an announcement.

People can now stake ETH in the contract. A total of 524,288 ETH need to be deposited in order for the genesis of Beacon Chain to happen.