The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has set a new record with a massive $52 billion worth now securing the ETH network.

Per IntoTheBlock, the Ethereum network is currently being secured by a staggering $52.3 billion, marking the highest value ever reached. Recent data reveals that the total value of the ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract has reached an ATH of 26,232,679 ETH.

IntoTheBlock notes that as the value of ETH used to secure the network increases, it becomes increasingly challenging for any potential attacker to gain control over it.

Ethereum migrated to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus during the Merge upgrade last September. The proof-of-work (PoW) consensus was used by Ethereum for the first seven years of its life, much like Bitcoin. The network’s security was then derived from the enormous quantities of energy needed to solve mathematical puzzles, as any attacker would have to obtain 51% of the chain’s energy usage, which is a nearly impossible feat.

Ethereum is now secured by stakers rather than miners. To be a validator, which is in charge of ensuring the validity of new blocks, stakers must stake 32 ETH. Consensus mechanisms, which allow a decentralized network to confidently decide which blocks to add to the chain, are the most important aspect of any blockchain’s security. If the consensus mechanism is exploited, as might happen in a 51% attack, the chain could suffer irreparable harm. Ethereum Deneb/Cancun testing efforts progress Christine Kim summarizes the Ethereum ACDE call, a twice-weekly conference call where Ethereum client teams debate and plan updates to the Ethereum execution layer (EL). This week, developers talked about DevNet 8 planning and some adjustments to Deneb/Cancun EIPs. Various teams are working on new software releases in advance of DevNet 8.

Developers will move on with the launch of the following test network once all client releases have passed the pertinent Hive tests for DevNet 8, which is scheduled to debut sometime in the first week of August, according to developers. A shadow fork of Sepolia has already been finished by developers with a small number of clients, and this helped to find a few flaws in the client code.