- The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has reached 524,288 Ether from 16,384 validators.
- The contract reached the threshold nine hours before the deadline, enabling the launch of ETH2 phase 0 on December 01.
The launch of Ethereum 2.0 has been confirmed for December 1 after a late surge in deposits. Just one day before the deadline, the deposit contract hit its target. The contract needed 524,288 ETH deposited by 16,384 validators by November 24, 12pm UTC.
Late surge enables launch of ETH 2.0
The Ethereum community, and the cryptocurrency industry at large, has been eagerly awaiting ETH 2.0 beacon chain genesis. However, as of yesterday, there were doubts on whether the deposit threshold would be hit for the December 1 launch.
As Crypto News Flash reported, only 274,944 ETH had been staked as of yesterday. This was well short of the 524,288 ETH deposit threshold which had to be reached today, 12pm UTC. In the past few days however, more companies had been turning up and staking tens of thousands of ETH, sparking hope that the threshold may be met after all. These included the IBC Group from Dubai which staked 22,000 ETH worth $10 million and Bitcoin Suisse which staked 100,000 ETH. The goal has now been hit, as Vitalik Buterin confirmed via Twitter.
524288 pic.twitter.com/N66EmtW0Ih
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 24, 2020
According to Dune Analytics, the Ethereum community has now deposited 611,520 ETH at press time, worth $377 million. Despite fears that it would fall short, the community has surpassed the target by 17%.
The late surge in deposits for the ETH 2.0 deposit contract showed the faith the community has in the future of Ethereum. And not surprisingly, the price of Ethereum benefited, shooting up to levels not seen since 2018.
At press time, Ethereum is trading at $616.6, up 5.6% in the past 24 hours. In the past 7 days, ETH has gained 33.3%, hitting a new three-year high. The last time Ethereum traded past $600 was in May 2018.
All set for ETH 2.0
With the deposit threshold confirmed, the Ethereum community now awaits the launch of ETH 2.0’s beacon chain genesis on December 1, seven days after the required deposit contract’s threshold is met. While the rollout of the beacon chain will start in a week’s time, it may take over two years as Vitalik Buterin explained recently.
The Ethereum founder explained that the migration into ETH 2.0 is not a simple transition. Rather, it’s a transition that will see the second-most valuable cryptocurrency shift into proof-of-stake, making it ready for global adoption, especially by enterprises.
The migration also comes at a crucial time in which decentralized finance (DeFi) is booming. DeFi platforms have showcased what’s possible on the Ethereum blockchain. According to DeFi Pulse, the total value of BTC and ETH on DeFi platforms currently stands at $14.24 billion. MakerDAO is still the king of the DeFi ecosystem with a market dominance of 19.38%.
Steven Becker, the president of MakerDAO recently explained what impact ETH 2.0 will have on the DeFi industry. He stated:
[ETH 2.0] should enable Ethereum to scale to thousands of times its current capacity while remaining both secure and decentralized… which will be a boon for DeFi.
