Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Contracts Surge As ETH Price Threatens $600

The Ethereum 2.0 launch is a major point of discussion in the Ethereum community as of December 1 approaches. Earlier this November, Afri Schoedon, an Ethereum developer, launched deposit contracts for Ethereum 2.0. According to the latest developments, the deposit contracts have so far surpassed the half-way mark of the minimum milestone set at 524,288 ETH for the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain to launch and go live.

The #eth2 deposit contract has reached more than half of its target (currently at ~278000 ETH deposited), with the bulk of the deposits taking place in the last three days!https://t.co/yqy87eMafV

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 22, 2020

Additionally, looking at the latest developments, almost 292,320 ETH has been already staked entirely in the ETH 2.0 Deposit Contracts. Notably, the contracts have registered huge deposits in the past week after a somewhat lukewarm start. Barely four days back on November 19, the cumulative staked ETH was not even 20% of the minimum threshold.

Nevertheless, the ETH deposits have increased faster than many expected them to do. In the process, they crossed 55.8% at the time of writing. In about 24 hours, the progress meter has surged by 10% with more than 25% ETH being staked.

292,320 ETH has been staked in the Eth2 deposit contract.

231,968 more ETH is needed to launch Eth2.

███████████░░░░░░░░░ 55.8%

— Eth 2.0 Deposit Contract – Progress Meter Bot (@DepositEth) November 23, 2020

That is a considerable surge taking into mind that it is important to move above the minimum staking threshold so that the Ethereum 2.0 genesis can be triggered successfully. It is already getting late for the launch of the ETH 2.0 Beacon Chain from its past schedule of December 1. Nonetheless, it now seems like the deposit contracts are gathering momentum and the ETH 2.0 Phase 0 launch may happen by mid-December if we continue at this speed.

Interestingly, Ethereum 2.0 promises major scalability and a performance that is suitable for the now-popular decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. But, many delays in the PoS Ethereum blockchain has so far dampened the excitement that once existed within the community.

In the past week during an AMA session that was hosted on Reddit, Vitalik Buterin said that the complete launch of Ethereum 2.0 will still take another 24 months.

“Highlighting a comment I made in the Reddit AMA yesterday that got buried but I think expresses something important: pic.twitter.com/NR2Y7GWY9U — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 19, 2020”

ETH Rally Takes Price Towards $600

The price of Ether (ETH) has been surging rapidly as it sets its eye on $600, in the process hitting its new 2020-high. At the time of writing, ETH is trading around $580 with the market cap at $65.9 billion. The second-biggest crypto has attained these levels for the first time in almost three years. On the flip side, ETH continues to extend its market dominance which now over 12.5%.

In the past week, ETH added a further $100 to its price. Bitcoin is getting all the attention. But, it appears like ETH has far-better year-to-date returns at 340% compared to BTC’s 160%. Thus, it has been the top-performing altcoin in 2020.

Furthermore, with the DeFi market exploding earlier this year, ETH has recorded significantly more transactions than BTC and managed to maintain higher liquidity. If the altcoin market rally sets in, ETH may surge to its all-time highs of $1,400 and rise even beyond that. While there has been a significant delay in the launch of Ethreum 2.0, some analysts believe that it is worth the wait.

“The #Ethereum #proofofstake #phase0 #beaconchain is getting close to launch!

So what?

Here’s a thread to explain why millions of dollars of #ETH are being moved into this state of the art gadget, what makes it different from other #PoS systems, and why it was worth the wait! — Jeff Coleman | Jeff.eth (@technocrypto) November 21, 2020”

How high will ETH price go? It is a matter of time to determine where it heads to next from the current levels.