Ethereum has taken its first step towards Proof of Stake [PoS] today, with the Beacon Chain going live. The excitement was visible all across Twitter as people celebrated the new beginning for ETH. Adding to this celebration, Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, launched ETH 2.0 Staking service from 2 December.
The announcement noted:
“Users that participate in ETH 2.0 staking will receive BETH* at a ratio of 1 ETH = 1 BETH. In addition, ETH 2.0 staking rewards will be distributed daily in the form of BETH.”
BETH tokenized a user’s stake in Ethereum 2.0 pool at a 1:1 ratio. BETH will enable the users to reclaim ETH at a 1:1 ratio when the ETH 2.0 Phase 1 goes live. This is estimated to take place by the same time next year.
As Binance extends staking support, it will cover all validators operating expenses for users and will also bear the risk of on-chain penalties. It mentioned distributing the on-chain staking rewards to users.
The minimum stake value has been established at 0.0001 ETH and the BETH rewards will be distributed based on users’ BETH holdings.
Like Binance, Coinbase also announced support to stake ETH 2.0. Yesterday, Coinbase announced its support and informed the users could convert their ETH1 in their exchange account to ETH2, which is when the staking will begin. Even though the ETH 2.0 tokens will remain locked in the Beacon Chain, the exchange will “enable trading between ETH2, ETH, and all other supported currencies providing liquidity for our customers.”It will roll-out support to customers in limited jurisdictions first at the beginning of the new year and share other details soon.
Huobi and Kraken have also joined Binance and Coinbase in extending support to ETH 2.0 staking.
Although the crypto community appeared excited about Phase 0 kick-off, the price of the digital asset was noted a sharp drop. After the launch, the price fell by 11.65% within an hour. This jump took place from $636 to $562. However, at press time, the price bounced back to $589.
