The crypto staking landscape is constantly evolving, with new and remarkable shifts coming to light every now and then. A feature that was once primarily attributed to networks with proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms like Ethereum, developers have now brought staking and restaking to the Bitcoin blockchain.
A report by the non-custodial staking services provider P2P.org outlined some major staking trends seen in the market over the past month.
Trends in Ethereum Staking
The Ethereum network has seen steady validator growth despite the current crypto market uncertainty, volatility, and lower rewards. P2P.org discovered that the blockchain witnessed a 1.49% growth in the number of validators and staked amounts of ether (ETH).
“While this growth is consistent with previous months, it’s clear that price volatility and reduced validator rewards have slowed down the pace compared to earlier in the year. But hey, steady growth is still growth!” the staking services provider stated.
P2P.org said the slowed growth is expected due to the crypto market’s condition, which has seen the total market capitalization drop from $2.3 trillion to $2.03 trillion within 14 days. The firm explained that the dip was accompanied by concerns about the upcoming U.S. elections and a potential recession.
Regardless, the Ethereum staking ecosystem has recently recorded some exciting incidents, such as the adoption of ERC-20 tokens like Ethena’s synthetic dollar, USDe, as staking collateral assets under the Symbiotic restaking protocol. Ethereum staking protocol EigenLayer also announced a fresh round of EIGEN airdrops to its community for their support since the platform’s inception.
Bitcoin Enters the Staking Landscape
On the other hand, Bitcoin began its staking journey at the end of August with the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon. P2P.org revealed that Babylon’s staking launch was successful, as the protocol reached its 1,000 BTC deposit cap in four hours. The platform also has multiple large reserve tokens (LRTs), attracting a lot of bitcoins for the next staking round.
Babylon’s move sparked competition among Bitcoin layer-2 networks, which are looking to have a piece of the staking cake. CryptoPotato reported that Bitcoin layer-2 Core launched BTC liquid staking earlier this month, allowing holders to earn yield on their coins while freely trading their assets.
Additionally, Bitcoin liquidity protocol Lombard has unveiled a service that allows the restaking of Liquid Bitcoin on ETH staking protocol Ether.fi.