Bitfinex To Launch Trading For Beacon Chain Staked Ethereum 2.0 Tokens

Bitfinex – the major centralized exchange and principal Tether USDT issuer announced on Jan 20 that it will initiate trading for the Ethereum 2.0 tokens on it’s platform, a fancy term for the ETH tokens staked on the newly launched Beacon Chain, which will serve as the precursor to more advanced version of the Eth2 network.

The trading will be launched on Jan 21 for the following pairs: ETH2USD, ETH2ETH and ETH2USDT. The ETH2 token represents the ETH tokens that have been locked on the Beacon Chain by staking in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. The move will create and enhance liquidity for the non-transferable (until Eth2 Phase 1/1.5) ETH tokens staked already.

Ethereum 2.0 staking is highly profitable and provides constant solid and consistent rewards. Bitfinex already launched a Ethereum 2.0 staking service, requiring users to only deposit ETH tokens (even in smaller amounts) with the infrastructure and technical aspects, being dealt with by the exchange, in lieu of a cut in the rewards received for staked tokens.

About Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum 2.0 is the next big upgrade for the Ethereum network. It will bring Proof of Stake (POS), eWASM and sharding. It will reduce the resources, required to run the Ethereum network, as well as bring scalability and performance improvements.

The Eth2 upgrade will be implemented in three phases. The first Phase 0 Beacon Chain launched on Dec 01 ’20 and introduced the staking feature. This will be followed by the Phase 1 in Q1 2021, which will introduce sharding and allow data to be stored on shards, however transactions can’t still be processed.

The Phase 2 will make the Ethereum 2.0 truly complete and the network operational, after its introduction at some point in 2022. It will bring the Ethereum WebAssembly (eWASM) replacing the now operational Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Only after the Phase 2 has been rolled out, proper execution of smart contracts and transactions can commence on the new Eth2 chain. The Eth1 and Eth2 chain will gradually merge with each other.