Data from on-chain analytics firm, CryptoQuant indicates that over the past week, the amount of Ether held in cryptocurrency exchange reserves have been declining to new daily lows since the start of July.
The data also shows that July 1st saw the largest single-day outflow of Ether from exchanges since January 21 with more than 596,000 Ether pulled off exchanges. This decline comes as the network’s London fork upgrade is fast approaching, set to be fully functional on August 4th 2021.
Reasons for the decline
- Eth 2.0 staking surpasses 6 million Ether. The Eth 2.0 network upgrade, which transitions the leading decentralized platform from a Proof of Work consensus algorithm to a Proof of Stake, has seen a massive inflow of Ether holders staking on the testnet. This forms part of the reason why there is high demand for Ether as staking rewards ranges between 8-10% APR according to CoinDesk. The most recent data provided by Eth2 Launchpad indicates that the current amount staked is 6,166,661.
- The DeFi industry is getting more mainstream media attention. The decentralized finance ecosystem has seen increases in token values as well as the total value locked in DeFi protocols, with the total value locked in DeFi currently standing at $121.81 billion according to Defi Llama. This shows that investors are seeing staking as a source of passive income. Recently reported by Nairametrics, CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon and two senior analysts predict that Ethereum’s transition to PoS could push payouts to more than double, to $20 billion. The investment banking giants also projects that staking yields across the blockchain industry will double again to $40 billion by 2025.
- Excitement over the hardfork upgrade. The upcoming London Hard Fork and the EIP-1559 proposal has been the talk of the cryptocurrency community. Several analysts expect the upgrade to positively impact Ether’s price due to the transition to an eco-friendly proof-of-stake consensus mechanism as well as a new “scarcity” feature that will reduce the number of tokens in circulation, making Ether a deflationary token.
What this means
With the high demand for the second-biggest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of approximately $245 billion, the reasons stated are enough to cause a supply shock to the DeFi leader which will, in turn, push the price northward. However, investors are advised to invest with caution by applying dollar-cost averaging when buying into any coin because the cryptocurrency market is very volatile. A lot of regulatory actions are being taken by governments around the world which may disrupt price appreciation in the short term.
