The Ethereum Dencun upgrade is fast approaching and there have already been notable developments leading up to it. Besides the price of ETH rising to new two-year highs, there has been a significant increase in the amount of ETH that has been burned so far.
Over 50,000 ETH Burned
The Ethereum burn, which was brought with the EIP-1559 upgrade, has been ramping up over the past year. The ETH burned from fees on the blockchain quickly crossed the $100 million mark, and has now climbed to a new milestone.
According to Ultrasound Money, a website dedicated to tracking the performance of Ethereum since EIP-1559 was implemented, there have now been over 1.5 million ETH burned. A more accurate figure is 1,502,518.84 ETH at the time of writing, which is more than $5.6 billion at current prices.
The number of burned ETH has also greatly surpassed that of ETH issued, which means that the network has turned deflationary. Compared to the 1,502,518.84 ETH burned, there have been only 1,089,809.20 ETH issued in the same time period. This shows that the supply has not increased despite the new issuance, and ETH already in circulation is being burned as well.
At the time of the upgrade in 2022, the total Ethereum supply was 120,521,245. However, since then, the burn has been slowly eating into this figure and is currently sitting at 120,108,332 ETH. This means that the ETH supply has reduced by 412,706 ETH worth $1.55 billion since 2022.
Ethereum Dencun Upgrade Looms On The Horizon
The Ethereum Dencun upgrade is the latest in a long line of upgrades that have taken place in an effort to make it a better network. This upgrade is expected to come with a number of improvements for the network, including boosting its efficiency and capacity.
It was launched on all testnets last week which is expected to be the final phase before the launch. The launch itself has been scheduled to take place less than a week from now on March 13. Once completed, an increase in block space is expected to follow.
Presently, the ETH price is performing quite nicely leading up to the upgrade. It recently touched $3,900 for the first time since 2022, and while there has been a slight retracement, the altcoin continues to trend high above $3,700 at the time of writing.
ETH price moves toward $3,800 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com
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