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<\/p>\nThe stakes have been upped for Cardano and Polkadot, with the two networks continuing to dominate the staked capitalization rankings.<\/p>\n
According to data from StakingRewards, Cardano is currently the top blockchain in terms of staked value, with roughly $26.4 billion worth of ADA allocated to securing the network. With Cardano\u2019s entire capitalization tagging $36.6 billion, 73% of circulating ADA are being staked.<\/p>\n
StakingRewards estimates Cardano stakers are earning an annual reward of 7.22%.<\/p>\n
The second-largest crypto asset by staked value is Polkadot with $22.7 billion worth of DOT locked \u2014 representing 64% of its circulating supply. Average annual staking rewards for DOT are estimated at more than 13%.<\/p>\n
Cardano and Polkadot currently represent 7.9% of the $620.6 billion in crypto assets currently designated for staking across the crypto asset sector combined.<\/p>\n
While Polkadot and Cardano have long-dominated the staking sector by locked value, other leading assets have experienced notable disruptions to their rankings recently.<\/p>\n
Solana has now surpassed Eth2 to take the third spot for staked capitalization, with $9.4 billion with in capital staked. SOL staking and validation require the asset to be time-locked up and taken out of circulation which may explain the discrepancy, explaining why its staked capitalization exceeds its roughly $8 billion market cap. SOL stakers are generating 11% annually.<\/p>\n
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The once king of staking, Tezos, has dropped way down to the eleventh spot with a staked capitalization of $3.5 billion yielding 5.5% per annum. In mid-December 2020, Tezos was ranked fourth according to a Cointelegraph report at the time. <\/p>\n
In terms of overall capitalization, XTZ has slumped from the top ten to rank 35th according to Coingecko.<\/p>\n
Eth2 currently ranks as the fourth-largest staked asset with $8.2 billion. According to the ETH 2.0 launchpad, there are 3.9 million ETH locked into the Beacon Chain deposit contract. However, just 3.4% of circulating Ether has been allocated to staking, suggesting there is still significant room of Eth2\u2019s staking cap to grow.<\/p>\n
While ETH stakers are currently earning more than 7% annually, Ethereum\u2019s forthcoming chain merge is expected to significantly boost rewards as stakers begin collecting fees from the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM. <\/p>\n
Eth2 researcher, Justin Drake, predicts staking rewards will at least double with the chain merge, estimating rewards could jump to 25% per year.<\/p>\n
The remaining networks inhabiting the top ten rankings for staked capitalization are Avalanche, Algorand, USDC, Terra, Binance Smart Chain, and Tron.<\/p>\n