Binance researchers estimate the share of “profitable” Ethereum stakers

Only 31% of Ethereum stakers (ETH) are “in the plus” relative to current market quotes, according to Binance Research analysts.

At the same time, a significant portion of ETH (about 2 million) was deposited into the deposit contract within the price range of $400-700. Analysts noted that this corresponds to the early stage staking in December 2020.

This group of users is regarded as obvious Ethereum supporters. At the time, there was no option for liquid staking, and the unlock schedules were unknown.

In total since the Beacon Chain launch, users have staked more than 16.5 million ETH. The network has over 520,000 validators.

Staking services are provided by a number of platforms, led by the Lido Finance protocol. It accounts for 29.2% of the total locked coins. Exchanges Coinbase, Kraken and Binance account for about 26% of the market, solo stakers — almost 25%.

According to the experts, the yield on locked coins averages 7.3% per year. It comprises rewards for consensus verification (4.1%), priority transaction fees (2.2%), and MEV (1%).

Scheduled for March the Shanghai upgrade, among the updates, will activate EIP-4895, which will allow withdrawals of ETH from the Beacon Chain staking contract.

The Binance Research analysts are confident that the hard fork will spur inflows into staking. They expect interest in passive income from institutional investors.

As another important argument, the experts noted the relatively low share of staked Ethereum in market capitalization — only 14.3%. For other cryptocurrencies offering such staking, the figure reaches up to 97.5% (BNB).

Earlier in February, Kraken, as part of settling charges with the SEC agreed to close its staking service and pay a $30 million fine. The regulator classified the services as an unregistered securities offering.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the company is prepared to challenge in court such statements by the Commission.