ETH Staking Accelerates Ahead of The Merge, Will It Help ETH Recover?

The world’s second-largest crypto platform Ethereum (ETH) is preparing for the much-awaited Merge upgrade coming next month on September 15. The ETH price rallied significantly on the backdrop of the Merge upgrade leading to major market optimism.

As per details, the staking of ETH in Ethereum 2.0 deposit contracts has accelerated over the last few weeks. Citing data from OKLink, crypto journalist Colin Wu reports:

The number of ETH 2.0 deposit contract addresses has reached 13,343,768, and the stake rate has exceeded 11.17%. About 36,000 ETHs have been added every week, and 153,000 new ETHs have been staked since August.

Last week, ETH witnessed major selling pressure with its price hitting a weekly low of $1,525. Since then, ETH has recovered partially. As of press time, ETH is trading at $1,600 levels with its market cap slipping under $200 billion. Even at the current price, ETH is still trading 20% lower on the weekly charts.

Ethereum (ETH) On-Chain Metrics

Despite the excitement and bullish outlook for the Merge event, Ethereum’s on-chain activity has been declining over the last three months. This is because of the diminishing interest in DeFi and NFTs.

Citing data from IntoTheBlock, crypto analyst Scott Melker shows the significant drop in ETH gas fees paid. This clearly shows the drop in the Ethereum network activity. In his three key observations, analyst Melker notes:

• Total fees have dropped 48% in the last 90 days
• Net issuance has increased 3% in the last 90 days
• The average transaction paid by users in the Ethereum network has decreased 50% in the last 90 days from $5.2 to $2.6

The diminishing Ethereum network activity has also put pressure on the ETH burning rate. As per the ETH burnt indicator, since the implementation of EIP-1559, nearly 241K ETH has been burned in the last 90 days. “The daily amount of ETH burned has dropped approximately 50% in the past 90 days, from 2.12k to 1.06k,” writes Melker.