ETH 2.0 is coming and $950M worth of inflows suggest….

ambcrypto.com:

Ethereum, the world’s largest altcoin, has seen unprecedented traction since its inception. Fair to say, the upcoming “Merge” has played a significant role in upping the associated interest in the crypto. ETH 2.0 is a multi-stage shift of the Ethereum network from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The transition would enhance the network’s scalability, efficiency, and speed.

Just like the way PoW blockchains rely on miners to validate transactions, the PoS consensus mechanism relies on “stakers” to validate transactions by running nodes. Staking equates to depositing 32 ETH to activate validator software, and here’s the latest fact sheet.

According to data from Glassnode, the total number of Ether (ETH) locked in Ethereum’s ETH 2.0 hit an ATH. The total value in the ETH 2.0 deposit contract touched an ATH of 12,789,829 ETH. That equates to more than 10.73% of the circulating supply and is worth roughly $23.2 billion at today’s prices.

Source: Glassnode

Another important attribute relating to the in-transit Merge is the gas fee. The current PoW network sees a few shortcomings with the worst of them all being high gas fees. ETH 2.0 would lower the network’s carbon footprint as well as the gas fee (This shift is meant to hugely drop transaction fees by killing off all the parallel chains feeding off the crumbs).

Furthermore, the total gas used by the network hit a 10-month low of 3,903,190,662.429.

Source: Glassnode

While, yes, this indeed would come off as a positive development across the board, there might be a twist in the tale. One reason remains the sustained decline in DeFi usage. The total value locked in DeFi smart contracts went down to $56 billion from $98.4 billion in February 2022.

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