Over 100,000 ETH2 locked for staking via Kraken in four days. Customers of the famous U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken have deposited over 100,000 Ethers, worth over $60 million, only four days after the launch of the Eth2 staking service.
The milestone was reached on Dec. 8, with the exchange reporting that its operation has accounted for roughly 8% of ETH’s share of Ethereum 2.0 so far. Kraken forecasts that its service would have an APY of between 5% and 17%.
Kraken’s vice president of product, Jeremy Welch, stated that the exchange has “long been a supporter of Ethereum,” noting that Kraken was one of the first exchanges to list Ether in August 2015.
Welch also noted that Kraken’s ETH trading volumes are typically equivalent to between 15% and 40% of daily Bitcoin trade as of Dec. 1. Kraken is not alone in offering Eth2 staking as a service, with Binance, Huobi, and Bitcoin Suisse all debuting their own services over the past week. OKEx also expects to launch its own service by the end of month, while Coinbase will join the fray in “early 2021.”
As such a large percentage of ETH stakes could be clustered among a handful of major exchanges. Ethereum wallet interface MyEtherWallet has also announced the integration of the ‘Staked’ DApp. Mew users are able to connect to Ether through the company’s web interface or Android wallet application.
Staked’s chief executive, Tim Ogilvie, stated “MEW is rightly regarded as one of the original Ethereum wallets and it is only fitting that MEW users can now take advantage of our staking infrastructure to participate in Ethereum’s major upgrade.”
While the launch of Eth2’s beacon chain at the start of the month enabled staking for ETH, stakers will not be able to withdraw their tokens until Eth2 transfers are enabled — with onlookers speculating the functionality is unlikely to come online within the next 12 months.
Many stakers appear to have gravitated to third-party service providers so they don’t have to worry about incurring slashing as a consequence of disruptions to their node.
Some Eth2 validators have already complained of their Ethereum becoming locked until withdrawals are enabled without being able to earn rewards due to slashing penalties.
