ETH breaks multiple records as ETH 2.0 approaches

Ethereum (ETH) has hit multiple records amid news that ETH 2.0 could launch as early as Dec 1, according to crypto analytics firm Glassnode. 

Today’s launch of the deposit contract introduced the ability for users to deposit 32 Ether required to participate in staking. ETH 2.0’s beacon chain genesis will take place on Dec. 1 if at least 16,384 deposits of 32 ETH each are received. That’s a total of 524,288 ETH, or about $200 million worth.

Hours after the news was published, the number of Ethereum addresses holding at least 32 Ethereum hit an all-time high (ATH) of 126,852. Prior to the latest rise, this figure had hovered around 123k since June this year, with fluctuations only in the hundreds of addresses.

This means that around 13% of all addresses currently holding more than 32 Ether will need to participate in order to launch staking. Should this amount not be met, the launch will be postponed until seven days after the threshold is hit.

The number of addresses holding at least 0.1, 10, or 100 Ether has also risen to post record highs of 3,616,246 addresses, 293,183 addresses, and 52,943 addresses, respectively — indicating increased accumulation from speculators as well as prospective validators.

The number of Ether held on exchanges has also just hit a one-year low of 15.8 million. Referring to Bitcoin, earlier this month, crypto statistician Willy Woo said he believes that when the number of coins held on exchanges drop, “it’s a sign that new buyers are coming in to scoop the coins off the markets and moving them into cold storage.”

Ethereum’s exchange balance has shown a bart-pattern over the last ten months similar in scale to the months before the 2017 bull run. Other signs also can be linked back to this period, with the last time the price of Bitcoin hit $14,000 and Ethereum hit $400 simultaneously was near the end of the run in mid-January 2018.

Ethereum’s hash rate also hit an ATH last week at 270 Terahash or 270 trillion hashes per second.