Valid Points: New Year, New Price Gains For ETH – CoinDesk

Bullish price activity has tipped the total value of ETH locked into Ethereum 2.0 past $2.4 billion. Find out what other network metrics have been impacted by ether’s latest price gains.
https://www.coindesk.com/new-year-new-price-gains-eth

It’s safe to say that 2021 is off to a great start for Ethereum. 

Since ringing in the new year on January 1, the price of ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the network, has appreciated 48% and surpassed the threshold of $1,150 for the first time since January 2018. 

On Ethereum 2.0, a higher ETH price means higher earnings for validators. However, it also means a higher barrier to entry for users wanting to become new participants of the network through purchasing and depositing 32 ETH.

While rewards earned by Ethereum 2.0 validators have stabilized over the last two weeks to around 0.008 ETH/day, the market value of these earnings has continued to rise from roughly $5 to now $8/day. Bullish price activity has also tipped the total value of ETH locked into the network past $2.4 billion as of Jan. 5, 2021. 

As of last Wednesday, Dec. 30, over 1,000 new validators have locked funds into the Eth 2.0 deposit contract, all of which will begin earning rewards in a few weeks time. The validator queue is currently at 17,425 meaning anyone that joins Eth 2.0 now by staking 32 ETH (worth roughly $32,646 at time of writing) will have to wait up to 20 days before they’re able to do anything on the network. 

For the 51,000 validators that have already been admitted, the vast majority of these participants are taking full advantage of their roles proposing, attesting and voting on blocks. The network participation rate, which measures the percentage of eligible validators that are online and actively helping progress the blockchain, has hovered consistently between 96% to 99% since mid-December. 

The CoinDesk Eth 2.0 validator is not yet among these active validators, however, we will be soon! More information to come about our setup over the next few weeks. 

Monday, one of the bullish arguments for Ethereum as both a platform and an asset (ETH) was produced by none other than a federal regulator.

According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), national banks and federal savings institutions can now use public blockchains as settlement mechanisms – particularly for stablecoins.

The news was front-run by not only some of the highest Ethereum gas fees in the last calendar year – which hosts the majority of dollars circulating in the $30 billion stablecoin market – but also a giant one day leap in the price of ether (ETH). The asset climbed some 30% to over $1,000 for the first time since the coin’s 2018 bull market. 

So, what does that mean for Ethereum? Demand for blockspace on Ethereum is high, as is demand for ether, the asset. Some of the recent price action can…