The latest figures suggest 13.6 million ETH is staked right now — and questions have been raised about whether there's a danger this could all be unlocked at once.
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Fears that The Merge will spark huge selloffs of Ether are unfounded, according to the co-founder of Bankless.
A large amount of ETH's circulating supply is currently locked up in the deposit contract, which first opened back in December 2020.
The latest figures suggest 13.6 million ETH is staked right now — and questions have been raised about whether there's a danger this could all be unlocked at once.
But speaking to the CoinMarketRecap podcast, David Hoffman stressed that this will be a gradual process — and even if everyone was to try and unstake at once, it would take two to three months before their funds were returned.
Hoffman also argued that it's unlikely many stakers will want to sell anyway. He pointed out that, when the deposit contract first launched, ETH was trading between $400 and $700 — and many of those who staked crypto then "were taking on all the risk" because they didn't know when the unlock date would be.
"This person to me is somebody that is an Ether permabull that's willing to go through the door first into unknown territory and take that risk because they believe in Ethereum. These are not people who are itching to lock in their profits."
He explained that those who staked early would have been unlikely to have locked up 100% of their holdings, too.
"If you look under the hood, the bearish math doesn't add up."
