Ethereum 2.0 staking has seen significant growth, and a major milestone has been reached. As such, the deposit contract for staking Ethereum on the Beacon Chain reached an all-time high of 47.36 million ETH this week.

Interestingly, this accounts for 33.9% of the entire Ethereum supply.

ETH2 Staking Milestone

According to the data shared by the crypto analytic platform Santiment, this is a dramatic increase from two years ago when it held only 10.9% of the supply, effectively more than tripling its share.

The ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract, used for staking deposits for Ethereum 2.0, now holds an all-time high 47.36M ETH, This is good for 33.9% of the entire supply, and more than tripling since the 10.9% it held two years ago.

Santiment also highlighted the redistribution of ETH over different wallet tiers. As such, wallets holding more than 10 million ETH, representing the Beacon Deposit Contract, increased their share by 23% of ETHs supply in the past two years.

On the other hand, holdings for other wallet categories have declined, with 10K+ETH wallets (excluding the Beacon Deposit Contract) dropping 5.3% and wallets with 10K or less ETH decreasing by 17.7% over the same period. This shift signaled a growing participation in Ethereum 2.0 staking.

Impact of Growing Participation in Ethereum Staking

Despite the growing inclination towards staking, data suggests that both staking reward rates and inflation rates have unexpectedly decreased.

The reward rate represents the annual percentage return for staking ETH, similar to interest earned for contributing to network security. Meanwhile, the inflation rate measures the pace at which the total ETH supply grows, with new ETH minted as staking rewards contributing to the inflationary trend.

The lower reward rate implies that stakers will receive less new ETH per staked token in the near term. However, the reduced inflation rate means the overall ETH supply is expanding more slowly. This could benefit ETHs value in the long run.