The year started on a bullish note that helped the world’s largest altcoin reach its pre-FTX market cap levels.
Days after struggling to overcome $1,600, Ethereum finally broke above the resistance level on Tuesday amid a broader market rally. Even though some groups of investors looking to pocket quick gains have started offloading the token, this has not affected the growing appeal of the network.
Ethereum Property
According to the last Data per IntoTheBlock, there is a clear upward trend in addresses with balances of all sizes. With the exception of a cohort of Ether holders with 0.10 ETH to 1 ETH, which started shrinking in size with the onset of the bear market, all other cohorts saw a steady increase.
With the most recent increase in the price of Ethereum, some larger holders have resorted to offloading their assets in a bid to make quick gains. Despite this, ITB noted an increase in addresses with larger balances in terms of USD valuations.
This trend represented improved market sentiment after a brutal year of relentless downtrend.
Further analysis of the ownership revealed that six addresses held a total of 22.65% of ETH supply, and these addresses were active. In terms of global distribution, data from ITB suggests whales hold most of the tokens in circulation. Retail players, on the other hand, held a relatively small percentage of supply.
Shanghai main network
Staking activity on the Ethereum network continued its upward trend as the total value staked in the ETH 2.0 deposit contract reached yet another ATH earlier this month. A significant increase in value was seen after Jan. 6, coinciding with the developer’s announcement of the Shanghai upgrade which aims to allow the withdrawal of staked ETH.
Billed as the first major update since the historic Ethereum merger in September, Shanghai is expected to go live in March 2023.
More recently, the first phantom fork designed to test the readiness of ETH staking withdrawal capacity was successfully deployed. The release is expected to have a significant impact on the crypto markets and usher in the emergence of new participants entering the network.
JP Morgan analysts predicted that 95% of retail investors on Coinbase could participate in Ethereum staking after the fork, increasing the exchange’s revenue to between $225 million and $545 million per year.
Meanwhile, Ethereum continued to experience the highest level of developer activity in 2022 despite the market crash.
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