Top Crypto News Today: Ethereum and Solana are the Most Staked Crypto Assets

Key Takeaways 

• According to Stakingrewards.com, the market cap of staked assets has reached $94 billion.
• A total of 14,545,424 ETH is staked at the time of writing.
• Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Binance Smart Chain (BSC) are the most staked crypto assets after Ethereum (ETH)

The Staking ecosystem is rallying with $94 billion worth of crypto tokens staked. ETH is leading the pecking order after the successful completion of Merge on September 15, 2022. Second to ETH is SOL with $12.7 billion staked tokens. Next in line is Cardano (ADA) at $ 11 billion and $ 5 billion worth of Binance Smart Chain assets staked. Avalanche is pretty much in the staking bull race with $4.6 billion in locked assets.

Polkadot (DOT), Cosmos (ATOM), Tron (TRX), Near (NEAR) and Matic (MATIC) come under top 10 cryptos staked. Out of the top 10 crypto assets staked, ATOM offers the highest yield of 17.89%

Staking is a process of locking crypto assets for a stipulated period of time to earn rewards. Crypto staking is offered by both decentralized and centralized crypto exchanges. Staking crypto assets on chain (through a DEX or on the blockchain’s official staking portal) opens up opportunities for validators to participate in the transactional process. The blockchain’s algorithm randomly chooses a validator who has staked the highest amount of assets within the smart contract.  

Mining on the other hand requires an individual to employ high computational power to solve algorithmic problems and compete with other miners to be able to mine the first block. The high carbon output has drawn attention of many including Biden’s administration. Months back Elon Musk – the Dogefather also raised concerns around PoW chains that harm the environment. 

Ethereum leading the crypto landscape as it appears to be profitable in the long run

According to CoinGecko, Ethereum – the second largest crypto by market cap had 14,545,424 Ether staked  with 430,080 validators and offers an annual yield of 4.1% per annum. (Data recorded on September 19, 2022) As per Nansen – a leading crypto analytics tool, the total amount of ETH staked on September 19 was in the red as ETH was trading at $1,360.79. 

The recent transition of Ethereum from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake has changed the token issuance pattern and is now seen from a different lens. The investors believe that ETH will acquire the label of ‘‘Sound Money’ with implementation of a supply cap on the token. Many believed that Ethereum’s upgrade will make the token deflationary. 

At the moment, individuals who have staked ETH into smart contracts to become a validator cannot unstake it until the ETH Shanghai upgrade. (The date of Shanghai upgrade hasn’t been announced yet) 

To become a validator on the chain before the merge, an individual needs to stake 32 ETH into the validator smart contract to be eligible for validating transactions on the chain. Investors can also stake as little as 0.01 ETH through staking pools. 

Additional Read: Top Binance Chain Ecosystem Tokens

According to the US Securities chairman, Ethereum Merge upgrade from PoW to PoS could mean that the asset could pass the Howey Test, the principal test used to determine whether an asset is a security.

Source: BeinCrypto