Hi there,
Ethereum has just crossed 10M ETH in the ETH2.0 deposit contract. Boom! What an epic milestone for the Proof of Stake industry!
Furthermore, this Friday the Beaconchain of the final Ethereum Testnet for the Merge will go live. We are closer to a fully production-ready Ethereum Proof of Stake Chain than ever. Remember, ETH issuance will be reduced by 90% once the Merge happens. Thus Ethereum will follow Terra into a deflationary economy.
Terra is once again leading the charge with $319M net staking inflow. The algorithmic money protocol has first surpassed Ethereum, and now even Solana to claim the rank for the highest Staking Marketcap. The performance is unprecedented with LUNA reaching a new ATH, and being the best performing asset in the recent downturn.
With that resilience, it looks to me like we have a new blue-chip in the Olymp. Calling the Big 3: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Terra.
Other projects that have stood out in the recent downturn have been Cosmos and Polygon. The performance of the SR20 has outperformed Bitcoin due to those 3 protocols primarily. Safe to say: They are here to stay. Other Staking Winners of the week have been Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot, showing local strength with people moving into long-term staking positions.
All the best,
Mirko
Staking at a Glance
Staking Intelligence
The final Testnet for the Ethereum Merge is live
The Kiln Testnet configs are out. This is the last Ethereum Testnet before forking the public testnets. It is considered the true final step before mainnet. The Beaconchain genesis will be Friday at 14:00 UTC. The PoW chain has already started and we expect the PoW phase to last ~a week. Developers are urged to deploy smart contracts now to know how they behave pre and post-merge! Tweet Thread.
EU Parliament Scraps Proof-of-Work Ban Following Backlash
Last week the European Union parliamentarians had proposed rules to prohibit crypto services reliant on environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms like proof-of-work starting in January 2025. Stefam Berger confirmed, that the language banning proof-of-work has been eliminated from the rules now. Read Coindesk Memo.
Cambridge University Launches Crypto Research Project with IMF, and World Bank
Multi-year Cambridge Digital Assets Programme launched with 16 institutional research collaborators to create open-access datasets and tools to inform digital public dialogue and decision-making in such areas as the environment, infrastructure, and cryptocurrencies. Collaborators are International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, etc. Read official Announcement.
Venture Firm Electric Capital Raises $1 Billion To Invest In Crypto Startups
Electric Capital is known for its technical knowledge is by creating an annual “Developer Report” which analyzes vast amounts of open source code published on the repository GitHub. Their best investment so far has been an early investment of $500k into Near Protocol, which is now worth $60M. Read Forbes Article.
New Book “Proof of Stake” by Vitalik Buterin
GitCoin is publishing a book, Proof of Stake, which is a collection of Vitalik’s writings over the years. The subtitle, “The making of Ethereum and the philosophy of blockchains”. Official Website.
Metamorphosis: Proof of Stake’s evolution to a fixed income product
The research paper by Finoa explores Proof-of-Stake as underlying for fixed-income products. “A massive unexplored opportunity”. Read Report.
Ethereum Proof-of-Stake and Our Solar Punk Future
Got any questions about the upcoming Ethereum Merge? This ETHDenver talk by Danny Ryan answers it. Watch Video.
Andreessen Horowitz invests $70M in Ethereum staking protocol Lido The venture capital firm said Lido’s liquid staking solution removes many “operational complexities” institutional investors have faced in staking ETH. Read more
LUNA flips Ethereum, becoming the second-largest network for staked value Data shows that there are currently 226,325 stakers accounting for $29.5 billion worth of locked up LUNA, propelling the network into second place for staked value. Read more.
Following a successful on-chain vote, stETH has been added as a new asset to Aave V2 and has already attracted over $130m in deposits.
Aave, a lending platform that allows users to borrow and supply assets, has integrated Lido’s stETH as a collateral asset on its platform. Read more
Yearn Finance has gone live on the largest Ethereum layer 2 platform – Arbitrum.
Yearn Finance, a DeFi protocol providing yield farming, lending aggregation, and other services, launched on another blockchain network – Arbitrum. Read more
DeFi ‘Godfather’ Cronje quits as TVL and tokens tank for related projects The prominent developer and prolific project founder has stepped down from any involvement in the crypto and DeFi space following the spotty launch of the Solidly project. Read Cointelegraph Article.
Polygon Welcomes NASDAQ-Listed DraftKings as Network Validator
DraftKings, a digital sports entertainment and gaming company, joins the Polygon ecosystem as a validator and node operator marking the first time a major publicly-traded firm has taken an active role in blockchain governance. Read Polygon Announcement.
Alternative Layer 1s are for the first time ever gaining TVL market share over Ethereum.
The latest Galaxy Digital Research Report spots the growth in TVL by alternative Proof of Stake Layer 1 protocols. This trend is well-aligned with our thesis for the SR20 Staking Index.
What’s new on Staking Rewards?
Harvest Finance is an automatic yield farming protocol that helps traders take advantage of the latest DeFi platforms with the highest yield. The protocol redistributes revenues to $FARM stakers. Currently, 26.29****%**** of the total eligible supply is being staked with stakers earning 16.64% annualized.
$FARM Staking Stats as of March 8th. Visit the asset profile for more info.
Fantom Liquid Staking – Everything you need to know
This visual guide walks you through the steps of staking Fantom (FTM) without any lockups natively. Read Journal Article.
Staking Rewards is hiring Researchers & Engineers
We are looking for proactive, intelligent, and determined people to join our team across all functions. Positions are fully remote.
We are looking to hire 2-3 more Researchers, to join our team of 4 on a mission to become unprecedented experts on staking data & economics. Apply here.
We are looking to hire Software Engineers with web3 experience to develop the data aggregation pipeline for Staking Rewards. Apply here.
Furthermore, we are looking for a Director of Marketing to lead our marketing efforts. Apply here.
If you know anyone who would be a great fit, please ping us. We offer a generous referral bonus.