Ethereum 2.0 confirmed for Dec. 1 launch just hours before deadline

Eth2’s beacon chain genesis has been confirmed for Dec. 1 following the transfer of 524,288 Ether (ETH) from 16,384 validators into the Eth2 deposit contract since it went live on Nov. 4.

Despite early concerns stemming from low staking participation, transfers to the deposit contract rapidly increased over the past day, with more than 200,000 ETH sent to the contract in the past 14 hours.

Ether sent to deposit contract over time: Dune Analytics

Ethereum 2.0’s beacon chain genesis is now set to take place on the earliest possible launch date of Dec. 1, with genesis taking place seven days after the required deposit contract’s threshold was met.

Every single Etherean right now pic.twitter.com/ACqF7laFfG— Anthony Sassano | sassal.eth (@sassal0x) November 24, 2020

While genesis participants will not be able to withdraw their coins until ETH 2.0 reaches Phase 1.5 — which will merge the Ethereum mainnet with Eth2’s beacon chain and sharded environment — many hodlers are waiting for third parties to launch withdrawal-enabled staking services, despite the potential risk of exit scams.

The deposit contract’s threshold was met with roughly nine hours to go until its deadline.

We did it! Ethereum's proof of stake chain will launch on December 1st.

%. We have now reached the minimum necessary for chain launch, including the pending transactions pic.twitter.com/kPGNX6qqk6— Evan Van Ness (@evan_van_ness) November 24, 2020