The highly anticipated upgrade of Chainlink, the launch of Staking v0.1, on the Ethereum mainnet was successfully completed a few hours ago. The feature is a key component of the Chainlink Economics 2.0.

Chainlink Staking aims to create stability for the ecosystem. Participants can earn rewards by staking the native LINK token to secure the network by incentivizing honest behavior.

This reward mechanism is intended to ensure that nodes have an incentive to improve the oracle’s data integrity and efficiency in the coming years.

Chainlink Staking Generates Huge Demand

As of yesterday, only a select few community members who meet at least one of the criteria on the early access eligibility list will be able to stake up to 7,000 LINK worth approximately $53,000 in the capped v0.1 staking pool.

Starting tomorrow, December 8 at 12PM ET, the capped staking pool will be open to all, giving everyone a chance to stake up to an initial limit of 7,000 LINK per address.

Initially, there is a cap of 25 million LINK for the staking pool. 22.5 million LINK are allocated for community stakers on a first-come-first-served basis, while 2.5 million LINK are allocated and reserved for node operator stakers.

As of press time, 11.1 million LINK, the equivalent of about $75 million, had already been staked, according to Etherscan data. The amount is split among more than 2,600 addresses.

More than 950 addresses deployed 7,000 LINK. And 725 addresses staked less than 1000 LINK. With the current brisk participation, the limit of the Chainlink Staking v0.1 pool should therefore be reached very quickly.

Staking represents a new era of cryptoeconomic security for the #Chainlink Network.

By staking LINK tokens, you can help increase the security guarantees of oracle services and earn rewards in return.

Start staking: https://t.co/nOhbTwLWTB pic.twitter.com/SU6n4SUd6v

— Chainlink (@chainlink) December 6, 2022

For participants it is important to know that the staked LINK and rewards will remain locked until the release of Staking v0.2, which is planned in about 9-12 months.

Originally, a lock-in period of 12-24 months was planned, based on a conservative release cycle. However, after discussions with a number of community members and node operators, faster iterations were identified as a better solution.

LINK Price Is Ranging

Since staking reduces the supply of liquid LINK, it could be a potential price catalyst. Currently, the LINK price has been in a trading range for 7 months, from which the price has not been able to break out.

At press time, the LINK price saw a drawdown of up to 4%, following the broader market sentiment. It was trading at $6.89 and thus in the middle of the trading range.

On the downside, the $5.30 level is of major importance, while the $9.60 mark marks the upper end of the range. Only reaching the latter level could catapult LINK back into bullish territory.