Long-Term Confidence in ETH Grows as Staking Reaches Record Levels

Despite the rise in staking, Ethereum’s price has faced recent downward pressure, and is currently hovering around $2,400. Meanwhile, crypto platform Bison launched insured Ethereum staking, offering added protection for users. Bloomberg’s ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also recently faced backlash over an X post spreading claims about Ethereum’s security, which the community quickly criticized as misinformation. In other news, Binance is set to list the native token of Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll, SCR, for pre-market trading.

Ether Staking Surges

Ethereum’s long-term prospects seem very promising as almost a third of all ETH has now been staked. This indicates that tokenholders have a strong interest in both the asset and the rewards tied to staking. On Oct. 8, on-chain data provider IntoTheBlock shared that 28.9% of all ETH has been staked. This is a noticeable increase from the 23.8% in January. 

It also means that an additional 5.1% of the total ETH supply was staked over the last ten months. IntoTheBlock also pointed out that 15.3% of the staked ETH has been locked up for over three years, which is a sign of long-term confidence in Ethereum’s future as well.

Despite this increased staking activity, Ethereum’s price has faced some downward pressure. ETH did perform well in the first half of 2024, but the token has struggled over the past few weeks. 

Ethereum’s price over the past year (Source: CoinMarketCap)

In March, ETH reached a yearly high, but its price has since dropped and is currently hovering around $2,400. Analysts attribute the recent decline to selling pressure from early investors and a lack of demand for Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds. 

Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed his support for reducing the minimum requirements for solo staking. On Oct. 3, Buterin joined a discussion on X, and acknowledged that the current 32 ETH requirement, which is worth close to $80,000, might discourage broader participation. While staking pools allow users with fewer funds to stake, Buterin’s comments shed some light on the need for more accessible solo staking options to encourage broader involvement in Ethereum’s staking ecosystem.

Bison Launches Insured Ethereum Staking

Bison, a crypto trading platform that is owned by the Böerse Stuttgart Group, launched an insured staking service for Ethereum users that allows customers to stake as little as 0.005 ETH and earn weekly rewards. The initiative is backed by German companies, including the global reinsurance firm Munich Re, which provides security against common risks in crypto staking.

Through partnerships with Munich Re and German staking provider Staking Facilities, Bison offers insured ETH staking that protects users from the primary risk of “slashing,” which can result in the loss of staked ETH due to improper validator actions. The insurance also covers operational errors, technical failures, and fraud, offering users added peace of mind when staking their assets. All of the assets staked through Bison’s platform are managed by Böerse Stuttgart Digital Custody, which is licensed by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.

Börse Stuttgart Digital, the group’s crypto division, also recently partnered with DZ Bank on Sept. 19 to provide crypto trading and custody services. This partnership will make it possible for approximately 700 cooperative banks under DZ Bank’s umbrella to offer digital asset access to retail customers for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum. The roll-out is expected to start later this year, with select clients testing the new services.

Balchunas Faces Backlash Over Ethereum ‘Misinformation’

Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, stirred up the Ethereum community on Oct. 7 with a now-deleted X post that many claimed spread “misinformation.” Balchunas shared an excerpt from Benjamin Hart’s book, Bitcoin: Beginner’s Guide, while responding to a request from ETF Store president Nate Geraci for a crypto book recommendation. In his post, Balchunas commented that Ethereum “just isn’t the same or as secure” as Bitcoin.

The excerpt from the book made controversial claims about Ethereum’s security, including that the US government could potentially “shut down Ethereum” by telling Amazon Web Services (AWS) to disable its cloud services. According to Ethernodes, 28.4% of Ethereum nodes are hosted on AWS, but this would not be enough to bring the entire network offline.

Another claim in the book suggested that a rogue state or terrorist group could kidnap Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and force him to hand over “all the Ether they want.” This was met with a lot of backlash from the Ethereum community. 

Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano called it “blatant misinformation and pretty much complete propaganda,” and is very disappointed in Balchunas for sharing the excerpt. Sassano also went on to criticize Balchunas for deleting the post only to avoid public backlash.

Consensys product manager Jimmy Ragosa also weighed in, and called the excerpt “the most propaganda-ridden paragraph ever.” Meanwhile, fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart rather decided to  lightheartedly comment on Balchunas’ post, and anticipated a flood of reactions. Balchunas responded that he didn’t have time to engage more with people and would only leave the Bitcoin-related sections of the book up.

Binance is set to list the native token of Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll, SCR, for pre-market trading, making it the first platform to do so. According to a Tuesday announcement, Binance revealed that before the pre-market listing, Scroll’s SCR will be available in its Launchpool, allowing users to lock BNB and FDUSD to farm SCR airdrops over two days starting on Oct. 9 at midnight UTC. 

Each user can earn a maximum of 97,395 SCR in the BNB pool and 17,187 SCR in the FDUSD pool. The total supply of SCR will be 1 billion tokens, with 5.5% of that allocated to Binance Launchpool rewards, amounting to 55 million tokens. At the time of listing, the initial circulating supply will be 190 million SCR, representing 19% of the total supply.

Binance plans to list SCR on Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. UTC for pre-market trading against USDT. However, details about the end of pre-market trading and the spot listing have have not been announced, and the offer will not be available in all regions.

Scroll has not confirmed the exact launch date of its token but had previously indicated it will happen this quarter. Scroll’s zkEVM, a layer-2 network using zero-knowledge proofs for scalability and Ethereum compatibility, went live on mainnet in October of 2023. Since then, about 76,769 ETH, which is equivalent to $186 million, has been bridged to the platform.

Binance launched its pre-market trading service just two weeks ago, offering users the ability to take early positions before a token’s spot market listing. Unlike other pre-market platforms, Binance provides trading of actual tokens, rather than derivatives. This allows users to hold and trade tokens in the pre-market after Launchpool distributions. However, the service is restricted in several regions, including the US, Canada, Dubai, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, and Spain. SCR appears to be the first token available for Binance’s new pre-market trading service.