The year started on a bullish note which aided the world’s largest altcoin to sprint towards its pre-FTX market cap levels.
Days after struggling to overcome $1,600, Ethereum finally climbed past the resistance level on Tuesday amidst a broader market rally. Even as certain group of investors looking to pocket quick gains began offloading the token, this has not affected the growing appeal of the network.
Ethereum Ownership
According to the latest data by IntoTheBlock, there is a clear upward trend in addresses with balances of all sizes. Except for one cohort of Ether holders with 0.10 ETH to 1 ETH, which started decreasing in size with the start of the bear market, all the other cohorts have been on a steady rise.
With the most recent increase in Ethereum’s price, some bigger holders have resorted to offloading their assets in a bid to rake in quick gains. Despite this, ITB noted an increase in addresses with larger balances in terms of USD valuations.
This trend depicted an enhanced market sentiment after a brutal year of an incessant downtrend.
A drill down further at the ownership revealed that six addresses held a total of 22.65% of the ETH supply, and these addresses have been active. In terms of the overall distribution, ITB’s data suggested that whales hold most of the tokens in circulation. The retail players, on the other hand, held a relatively small percentage of the supply.
Shanghai Mainnet
Staking activity on the Ethereum network has continued its uptrend as the total value staked in ETH 2.0 deposit contract reached yet another ATH earlier this month. A prominent uptick in value was seen after January 6th, coinciding with the developers announcing that the Shanghai Upgrade that seeks to enable the withdrawal of staked ETH.
Touted as the first major update since Ethereum’s historic Merge in September, Shanghai is slated to go live in March 2023.
More recently, the first shadow fork designed to test the readiness of ETH staking withdrawal capability was deployed successfully. The release is expected to have a significant impact on crypto markets and usher in the emergence of new participants entering the network.
JP Morgan analysts predicted 95% of retail investors on Coinbase could participate in staking Ethereum after the fork, ramping up the exchange’s revenue between $225 million and $545 million per year.
Meanwhile, Ethereum continued to see the highest level of developer activity in 2022 despite the market slump.
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