Staking in 2022: Ethereum’s Merge, Institutions, Layer-2, and Liquid Staking
Categories: Crypto News US
Staking is seemingly set for a big 2022. With Ethereum (ETH) planning an eventual move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism this year, it will bring staking to thousands if not millions of users who’ve never tried it before, with the growth of ETH staking likely to feed into similar growth elsewhere But according to industry figures speaking with Cryptonews.com, general growth is not the only trend that staking can look forward to in the coming months. We can also expect to see increased institutional interest in staking, as well as the growth of liquid staking, staking via layer-2 protocols, and via GameFi (decentralized applications (dapps) with economic incentives) and NFT platforms. Another individual who estimates that the move to Ethereum 2.0 (or the "consensus layer") will boost staking is Rick Delaney, a senior analyst at OKX Insights, who suggests that the successful completion of the move will attract more risk-averse ETH holders. But Delaney suggests that, given the wait for Ethereum 2.0, the sector will see growth in staking emerge from elsewhere.There’s little doubt that staking had a good 2021. According to data provider Staked.us, 7.7% of all coins in the crypto market were staked in the fourth quarter of the year. Staked’s Q4 2021 report also found that proof-of-stake cryptoassets accounted for 31% of the market’s overall capitalization, up by 127% compared to a year previously. It also reported that rewards from staking equaled USD 15bn in 2021, up by 939% across the previous 12 months.Staking might also be driven by the underlying growth in the crypto ecosystem, with new platforms more likely to be launched as proof-of-stake (rather than proof-of-work) protocols.