OKX, the second largest crypto, announced the temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals of certain cryptocurrencies due to the upcoming Ethereum Shapella upgrade, which is set to occur today, April 12th.
The exchange tweeted that the upgrade is coming soon and that deposits and withdrawals of Ethereum (ETH), Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), and ERC-20 tokens will be temporarily suspended for one hour today, at 9:30 pm until the upgrade is completed.
According to the announcement, after the Shapella upgrade, OKX will increase the minimum confirmation count of deposits into the Ethereum network from 12 blocks to 64 blocks.
The trading of the affected cryptocurrencies will not be affected during the network upgrade, but users are advised to increase their margin to lower their risks.
The exchange will handle all technical requirements involved for all users holding impacted cryptocurrencies in their OKX accounts. It will reopen deposits and withdrawals for affected tokens once it deems the upgraded Ethereum network to be stable.
The exchange said that for the safety of users’ funds, it advises them not to make any further withdrawals or deposits of affected cryptocurrencies during the upgrade.
Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade Sparks Debate
Experts are divided on the selling pressure that Ethereum’s upcoming blockchain upgrade, the Shanghai (Shapella), will bring to the market.
JPMorgan predicts that there will be a significant amount of selling pressure from the upgrade, as more than one million ether staking rewards will become immediately available this week.
Troubled entities’ selling of staked ether balances could increase the selling pressure in the coming weeks, JPMorgan added, forecasting that ether will underperform bitcoin in the next few weeks.
On the other hand, Bank of America believes that the liquidity event will not directly drive ether selling pressure. Instead, it expects increased volatility around the event due to lower liquidity, exchange inflows, derivatives activity, and price action related to the previous upgrade, the Merge.
Coinbase also anticipates limited ether selling on the back of this event, with selling from this source amounting to only 1-2% of total average daily ether trading volumes.
The performance of ether around Shanghai Fork will depend on the market’s perception of risk. If investors perceive risk assets to be sold off, they may decide to unstake and sell ether just to de-risk.
Related Reading | Ethereum’s Shanghai Hard Fork: Glassnode Report Eases Sell-Side Pressure Concerns
