Ethereum’s long-waited Shanghai update was finally completed successfully this April 12, after being implemented on the Beacon Chain. The update includes, among other implementations, the long-expected ETH withdrawals on staking blocked within the network.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up nearly 6% in the past 24 hours, with ETH trading at around $1,980, as stated by CoinGecko.
The price of ether (ETH), Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, embarked on an increase following last night’s Shapella activation. This was an event expected by the ecosystem that will allow funds blocked in staking to be withdrawn.
According to TradingView data, the activation of Shapella has pushed a price rise of Ethereum in the cryptocurrency market, as ETH reached its highest price in eight months.
For some experts and analysts such a rise was expected as it has almost touched the USD 2,000 level, at the same time they had warned that the Ethereum market could react upwards after Shapella.
In any case, other analysts estimate that some selling pressure could be generated after it drags ETH down, this is mainly due to stakers who decide to sell their holdings and investors who also do so for fear of a fall.
Though, various reports, such as one done by analyst firm Glassnode, have advised that Shapella may not generate a very pronounced negative effect on the ETH price. This idea is supported by the fact that most stakers are currently in losses, so it would not be in their best interest to sell. Therefore, given the various predictions, it is necessary to keep a close eye on how the Ethereum market continues to unfold.
Ethereum Shanghai Fork Complete: ETH Withdrawals Enabled
Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade was implemented as planned in the 194048 era of the Beacon Chain. It is not only for being the first update on the Ethereum blockchain after The Merge or Merger, but it also marks the final transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) and the figure of staking.
Enabling ETH withdrawals for Ethereum validators and depositors was a priority for the developers, who made sure to design a testing and experimentation schedule over the past few months for the Shanghai hard fork, making sure to meet the planned timelines to ensure ETH withdrawals as soon as possible.
Glassnode, expects around 170k ETH to be sold after the Shanghai implementation, so they do not expect a big selling pressure and impact on the cryptocurrency right away with the upgrade.
Kraken, one of the exchanges with the highest trading volume on the planet, is leading the list of Ethereum staking withdrawal requests.
With Shapella activation, two withdrawal modes were enabled: partial and full. Partial withdrawals allow withdrawing only the earnings of the validator node, leaving it operational, while a full withdrawal empties the node’s funds, and “shuts it down”.
According to Rated Network data, beyond a total of 997 processed requests for complete withdrawals, 80% belong to Kraken exchange, the other 19.6% to unknown validators, and 0.4% to Rocketpool.
Kraken has more than 20 thousand validators, so the number of withdrawals would be around 5% as Beaconcha.in reported.
By Marina Meza
