$31.5B Worth Of ETH Stuck in Beacon Chain Contract

Popular Ethereum enthusiast on Twitter, Tomer Strolight, has tweeted that about $31.5B ETH value is held in a Beacon chain contract and can’t be transferred or used.

Tomer Strolight Tweet. Source: Twitter

The deposit contract was used for the first time last year, but the funds can only be utilized once there is a hard fork. Strangely, more people continue to transfer ETH tokens to this contract despite knowing that funds from it can’t be transferred or used, and even the hard fork’s terms are still undecided.

The Cause Of The ‘Trap’

The fusion of this chain and Ethereum mainnet would have to be completed before any decision on the hard fork can be made. The beacon chain is one of the first vital steps of switching the Ethereum blockchain from a PoS to a PoW blockchain. An intending ETH2.0 validator must stake at least 31 ETH. The amount of ETH in this deposit contract proves the massive demand for an ETH2.0 validator and confidence in the impending ETH2.0.

Some ecosystem members tested the ETH2.0 based on the platform’s developers’ request earlier this month. There are three significant aspects of this testing phase; for expert and little experienced blockchain developers, the last is for non technical users.

The final phase of the switch from PoW ETH to PoS ETH (otherwise known as ETH2.0) would be the completion of the fusion of the deposit contract into the network’s mainnet. According to the blockchain’s official page, the merger will be finalized by June 2022.

Ethereum Price Action

Ether started the day on a mixed note; it rose high until it was rejected at its first crucial resistance level of $3.94K. Then, it slid to a mid-morning low of $3.81K. It further retested the $3.89K range (cruising higher than the $3.74K and $3.73K crucial support levels), but it failed to flip this resistance to support.

As of this writing, ETH has fallen back through the $3.81K support. Hence, it can’t bring to play the $3.93K crucial resistance, and it would require some intense buying pressure to surge past the morning peak of $3.91K. Since it has fallen back through the $3.81K and $3.72K support levels, its next crucial support would be at the $3.61K level. However, if there is intense selling pressure, eth may likely trade at sub-$3.5K region.

ETH Whale Purchase Contributes To A 6% Rise In MATIC Price

CoinMarketCap data has revealed that Polygon’s native token (MATIC) gained 6.5% over the past 24 hours to now trade at $1.89. One of the reasons for this surge was the testnet implementation launch of EIP-1559, which resulted in burning MATIC tokens.

Characteristically, a surge in MATIC price would happen since token burning usually results in intense buying pressure. An ETH whale took the buying pressure a step higher by buying over 1m MATIC tokens, as revealed a Whale Stats data. The Whale Stats data also revealed that MATIC is one of the most bought tokens over the past 24 hours.