TechFlow news — JPMorgan stated in a research report on Wednesday that Ethereum's upcoming Shanghai upgrade, scheduled for mid-March, is expected to boost staking rates on the blockchain over the medium term. The current staking rate of 14% has significant room for growth, considering the average across other major proof-of-stake (PoS) networks is about four times higher.
Analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said, “Assuming the staking ratio gradually converges toward the 60% average seen on other major PoS networks, the number of validators could increase from 500,000 to 2.2 million, and yields would decline from the current 7.4% to around 5%.”
JPMorgan noted that a significant portion of future staking growth may shift toward liquid staking protocols such as Lido. These protocols “provide liquidity to staked assets by issuing derivative tokens in exchange for staked ether, enabling them to be traded despite otherwise being locked in staking contracts.” Additionally, the firm observed that derivative tokens from liquid staking protocols typically trade at a discount to their underlying assets, but are now converging toward parity with ether (ETH) as the Shanghai upgrade approaches.Source link
