Ethereum Network Hits the Milestone of 500K Validators

After a long bear market the broader crypto market is indicating somewhat recovery. Increasing trading prices of crypto assets along with several other metrics shows the improvement. Value of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), like major cryptocurrencies, have surged in double digits. While the activities on the network also registered growth.

As per the recent data from BeaconScan, the number of validators on the smart contract blockchain network Ethereum reached 500,000.

The Shanghai hard fork, one of the anticipated upgrades in the network, is scheduled to roll out by March this year. Number of validators over the network reaching the milestone is prior to the upgrade itself.

With the previous upgrade, the Merge, Ethereum network had shifted from proof of work consensus mechanism to proof of stakes one. This way of being validators on the network has somewhat changed following the upgrade.

Now the validators on Ethereum need to put 32 ETH, currently valued at about 50,000 USD, as an initial investment to use validator software.

A validator secures a blockchain by, among other things, validating network transactions and guarding against double-spending problems. Validators will finally be able to withdraw their staked ETH and the benefits from their prior stakes following the aforementioned Shanghai update.

However, the total amount of staked ETH available for withdrawal will be capped at 43,200 ETH every day. According to Etherscan, the amount is currently somewhere between 16 and 17 million ETH.

This cap is meant to avoid a sudden, massive departure of validators. There are other factors besides this one that can be increasing the number of validators.

Since the recent release of a new staking feature by the well-known cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, users can now stake their Ethereum utilizing liquid staking protocols like Lido or Rocket Pool.

Users can join in Lido and Rocket Pool even if they do not stake the whole 32 Ethereum. They got LSDs, or liquid staking derivative tokens, in exchange for their investments, which may be used to earn more DeFi rewards. Considering these changes, ETH has performed well over the past week, increasing 18.3%.

The global crypto market also enjoyed the increase in its market capitalization with the majority of cryptocurrencies soared. Currently it holds more than 996 billion USD and likely to attain 1 trillion USD market cap soon.