Folks, get ready! Things are heating up in the world of Ethereum (ETH). It turns out that staking (which is like "depositing" your cryptos to help the network run and earn some extra coins) has broken records! We have over 35 million ETH locked, which is almost 30% of the total ETH that exists. Imagine, over 84 billion dollars! 🤯 This is a historic milestone, the highest percentage of "locked" ETH ever seen.

The three big players are grabbing the Ethereum pie! 🍰

But here comes the catch, and it's a big one, folks! The analysis firm Sentora dropped the bomb: although staking is skyrocketing (over 500,000 ETH were locked just in the first half of June!), there is serious concern about decentralization.

Why? Because Lido, Binance, and Coinbase are controlling almost 40% of all validator balances! 😲 That is, they hold most of the power to process transactions on Ethereum.

  • Lido, which is a "liquid staking" platform (where you can stake your ETH and receive another token in exchange that you can use), is leading with about 8.7 million ETH, which is 25% of all locked tokens!

  • And the two giants of centralized exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, each manage around 7.5% of the staking market!

Sentora made it clear: "A censorship or interruption event affecting Lido, Binance, and Coinbase would now impact more than 40% of new blocks." That's serious business! If something happened to these three, it could greatly affect the Ethereum network! 😬

Less ETH available = more volatility and expensive loans! 📈💸

This concentration of power has reignited the debate about whether Ethereum is truly decentralized as it is supposed to be. The dominance of a few entities raises questions about how the network will be governed in the future and whether there will be enough liquidity (that is, ETH available to move).

Moreover, the amount of ETH locked in staking, combined with 19% of ETH already in the hands of long-term "holders" (those who won't sell for anything), is making less and less ETH available for trading!

What does this mean? It means that the "float" of ETH (the amount of ETH that is free to buy and sell) is reaching levels not seen since before the famous "The Merge" (when Ethereum changed its system). This causes the markets to become "thinner", resulting in greater volatility! ETH prices can rise or fall suddenly, amplifying both rallies (sharp increases) and corrections (drops).

And to top it off, DeFi (Decentralized Finance) platforms are also feeling the pinch! Sentora warned that loan rates for liquid staking tokens like stETH, rETH, and frxETH are going up! If these tokens become scarcer, lending protocols may have to change their strategies. So be careful if you have your coins in DeFi!

In short, folks, Ethereum staking is at a critical moment. Will this concentration of power affect the decentralized spirit of the network? Let's keep a close eye on this story!$LDO $ETH