In a much-awaited development, the Shapella hard fork has finally been executed on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing Ethereum validators to withdraw their staked Ether from the Beacon Chain. The upgrade occurred at 10:27 pm UTC on April 12, at epoch 194,048.
The release of the Shanghai upgrade is a significant event for the Ethereum blockchain following the successful Merge in September 2022. The Merge marked the completion of Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The Shanghai upgrade enabled stakers to withdraw their ETH tokens, unlocking a significant amount of cryptocurrency in the process.
The Shanghai upgrade is named after the Chinese city’s major role in the early days of Ethereum and is expected to be a consequential moment in the development of the blockchain. The upgrade was aimed at achieving higher scalability and decentralization.
With the Shanghai upgrade now executed, all eyes will be set on how it will change Ethereum for the better and what investors should expect after the update.
Withdrawal & deposit After Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
As per the latest data from the token.unlocks, around 17,350 ETHs have been withdrawn, and 128 ETHs have been deposited just two hours after the upgrade was implemented.
The number of ETHs currently staked stands at 17.51 million ETH, which is equivalent to a whopping $33.52 billion. However, the total pending withdrawal is 822.72k ETH, worth approximately $1.63 billion, with an estimated withdrawal of 84.19k ETH ($162.89m).
Interestingly, Huobi at that time tops the charts with 29.8% of the entities waiting to cancel their ETH staking, followed by Other (20.9%), PieDAO (17%), Heavy Dex Trader 0xa3d (10.9%), and Kraken (5.88%), well in just matters of hours now Kraken is in the lead, with 73%. At the same time, Lido Finance is leading with 31% of ETH depositors.
Sources close to the matter suggest that the large number of ETH-staked withdrawals by Huobi is mainly related to the handover of new and old shareholders. After the withdrawal is opened, Li Lin needs to make a handover, and some ETH may be withdrawn and deposited again.
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