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Ethereum 2.0 hits 1 million staked ETH as institutional products pile into the crypto space

The week’s biggest stories from the cryptocurrency world that you may have missed

There have been multiple positive developments on the news front for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry this week. Most notably, the successful launch of Ethereum 2.0’s Beacon Chain has seen deposits into the protocol upgrade’s staking contract top 1 million ETH. At the same time, institutional demand for cryptocurrency exposure continues to rise — spurring on the creation of various products geared toward high net worth individuals and institutional clients.

Here’s everything you might have missed on the blockchain and cryptocurrency news front this week, in this edition of OKEx Insights’ Crypto News of the Week.

Ethereum 2.0 staking contract tops 1 million ETH

The staking contract for Ethereum 2.0 reached more than 1 million deposited ETH this week after successfully launching its Beacon Chain. As of the time of this writing, the total amount of ETH in the contract equates to over $600 million, with 1,082,851 ETH staked.

Key takeaways

Though rewards for early stakeholders are currently high, they will drop in line with new deposits.
The more than one million ETH deposited into the staking contract is essentially locked until Phase 1.5 launches in 2022.

Spotify looks to hire director to lead crypto efforts

Spotify is hoping to expand its efforts in the cryptocurrency and digital-asset space, according to a public job posting on the popular streaming service’s website. The company is specifically searching for an associate director to lead a payments strategy team involving digital currency.

Key takeaways

Spotify is involved with the Diem project. The new director will lead the company’s activity in the project — which was, until this week’s rebranding, known as Libra.
According to the job posting, Spotify may also be considering other opportunities relating to blockchains and digital currencies.