LUNA flips Ethereum becoming second largest network for staked value

Published at: March 4, 2022

According to data from Staking Rewards, Terra (LUNA) has flipped Ethereum (ETH) in terms of staked value, with $29.5 billion worth of LUNA locked up compared to Ether’s $25.9 billion.

The platform’s data shows that there are currently 226,325 LUNA stakers, making it the second most staked crypto asset with more than four times the number of those staking ETH at 54,768. Solana leads the staking charts with $35 billion in staked value.

In terms of annual staking rewards, LUNA is estimated to yield 6.62% on average while Ethereum fetches 4.81%. The most rewarding out of the top 10 staked assets is Polkadot (DOT) with 13.92%.

Staking Rewards highlighted the flippening on March 1, noting that LUNA staking had overtaken Ethereum, however, some users pointed out that data from DeFi Llama appears to contradict the figures dramatically.

DeFi lama suggests different data pic.twitter.com/lGbZ1lXefy

— Luna Studio.UST (@Luna_Studio_) March 2, 2022

DeFi Llama’s data shows that Ethereum towers over its competitors in terms of a total value locked (TVL) of $111.4 billion, compared to LUNA’s TVL of $23.35 billion. However, these figures incorporate collateral locked across DeFi protocols, not just ETH staked on the Beacon Chain, hence the discrepancy. The Beaconcha.in explorer currently reports 9.7 million ETH staked worth around $26.5 billion at current prices which is similar to Staking Rewards figures.

One trend that both data aggregators have confirmed, however, is that interest in LUNA has surged of late. Over the past seven days, LUNA’s TVL has increased 26.905% and sits well above third-placed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) at $12.03 billion worth of TVL.

Staking Rewards clarified that staked value and TVL metrics are “entirely different,” as the latter can also incorporate assets locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols for features such as lending.

The price of LUNA has gained a whopping 78.4% over the past 30 days to sit at roughly $92.84 at the time of writing, while its market cap currently totals $34.5 billion.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the asset's bullish recovery comes off the back of the Terra protocol burning 29 million LUNA tokens worth ($2.57 billion) late last month. The move coincided with the supply of TerraUSD (UST) — a stablecoin backed by LUNA — increased more than 14.5% to 12.92 million tokens.