The sum of Ether staked in the ETH2 deposit contract surpassed 10m, over 8% of the total ETH supply. The average daily staking balance remains close to 32 ETH, the minimum amount required to become a validator.
Validators are set to replace miners as transaction security force, and transaction fee collectors, once the transition to Proof-of-Stake is complete. This could push the yields for staking ETH to about 9-12%, according to an assessment reportedly sent to Coinbase institutional clients.
Both active and prospective validators are in high spirits after the successful launch of Kiln merge testnet, which integrated a proof-of-work execution layer similar to the one used on the Ethereum mainnet with proof-of-stake Beacon Chain that will coordinate the network post-merge. The Ethereum Foundation confirmed this was the last merge testnet before the final merge, expected towards the end of Q2.
