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After proposing a reduction in the issuance rate of ETH, the Ethereum community is currently engaged in heated debates over more ETH policies. Innovations in staking methods such as liquidity staking, heavy staking, and liquidity-heavy staking have brought additional earning opportunities for investors, undoubtedly significantly boosting the demand for staking in the market. However, another potential impact that must be taken seriously is the concern that the increasing prevalence of staking derivatives may weaken Ethereum's functionality as a cryptographic asset, leading to changes in governance power within the Ethereum network.
The escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East continue. The cryptocurrency market immediately saw a significant downturn, with BTC prices falling by 8% and ETH prices by 13%. Although the market stabilized and slightly recovered after this downturn, it continued to fluctuate downward. Following this event, investors are cautious about the potential long-term impact of the Israeli attacks on the cryptocurrency market.
Within the Ethereum ecosystem, there has long been significant controversy over potential changes in its issuance rate. This discussion was sparked by a proposal from two Ethereum researchers to slow down ETH issuance and thus reduce staking rewards. The overall goal of this proposal is to curb the rapid growth of Staking Pools at the current stage, to better manage new staking methods such as liquidity staking and heavy staking, and to establish their growing dominance, thus protecting Ethereum's functionality as a cryptographic asset.
The unexpected high demand for staking on Ethereum is evident, with the total assets actively participating in Ethereum's proof of stake currently standing at 31.4 million ETH (approximately 26% of the total supply). In addition, we can also see that the growth rate of staked ETH has been accelerating in recent months, especially after the introduction of new staking protocols such as the Eigenlayer heavy staking protocol in June 2023 and the liquidity-heavy staking protocol in early 2024. |
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