It's been less than three weeks since EIP-1559 London Fork Ethereum was launched and today the official amount of Ethereum staked in the contract has breached 7 Million Ethereum. This consists of 42 Unique stakers and 221 thousand validators. Source
A breakdown of where the Ethereum has come from and who is staking it as available in the source above. Noting a majority of Ethereum is unknown but Lido finance takes top spot for pooled Ethereum stakes.
How much Ethereum has been burned?
For the less than three week period of staking an astronomical amount of 70,000 Ethereum has been removed from circulation and in today's price that's around $US221 Million dollars Source.
The good news is that Ethereum Staking has already brought down transaction fees. It does so by instead of requiring users to pay fees stakers receive a portion of newly minted Ethereum for approving transactions.
The current fees in Gwei are as below (estimates only):
Basic Transaction
32 GWEI = $USD2.10
Complicated Transactions
120 GWEI* = $USD8.80
DEX Transaction
320 GWEI* = $USD20.20
The fees are due to the network currently hosting both miners and stakers. Which once completed miners will be removed from the network completely and replaced with Proof Of Stake. Ethereum is providing miners the opportunity to pivot from mining to stakers. It is yet to be seen if any will be left behind. Due to the collection of fees miners have sufficient time to accumulate enough Ethereum to transition to the PoS network.
Full Roll Out Wen?
The full Ethereum 2.0 Hard Fork is rumoured to be finalised by the end of 2021 and warnings have been issued to miners to transition to the new network with it fully implemented in early 2022.
It is also rumoured that unstaking Ethereum will also be enabled in Q1 - Q2 of 2022. That will be the proving point of Ethereum and if validators will commence dumping their now pumped up token.
Where are the Ethereum transactions happening most?
Opensea has led the charge of Ethereum transactions due to the Cryptopunks trades which mooned in July. The transactions exceeded 8,000 Ethereum and over $USD 22 Million dollars. Source
The second largest for Ethereum Transactions is the Decentralised Finance Exchange Uniswap which accounted for over 5,000 Ethereum more than $USD16 Million dollars in transactions.
So as you can see the London Hard Fork has greatly benefited Ethereum by providing fast, secure and cheap transactions away from the high fee, congested network prior.
As Ethereum continues to charge forward towards the end of 2021 its looking like a bright future for the network in 2022. It's still anyone's guess if validators will remain in the network or look to make some quick profits off their recent price growth.
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