Ether Hits 11-Month High as Post-Shapella Withdrawals Pass 1 Million ETH
Since the Shapella hard fork on April 12, Ether has seen a price gain of nearly 10%. Over 1 million Ether worth $2.1 billion has now been withdrawn from Ethereum’s Beacon Chain within the first four days of the Shapella hard fork, and Ether has pushed over $2,100 for the first time in 11 months.
Withdrawal Requests and Active Validators
The 1.03 million ETH withdrawals have come from 473,700 withdrawal requests, with Saturday, April 15 being the largest withdrawal day at 392,800 ETH according to data from beaconcha.in. Of the active validators, nearly 87% or 469,000 of the 540,000 are now able to withdraw their staked Ether.
Ethereum Community Split and Price Impact
While members of the Ethereum community were split on what impact Shapella would have on the price of Ether, the first four days have produced close to a 10% rise. The figures are of little “surprise” to Lachlan Feeney, chief executive of blockchain consulting and development firm Labrys, who explained that many validators are re-staking Ether back onto the Beacon Chain.
The Role of Kraken’s Staking Services
Markus Thielen, the head of research at digital asset platform Matrixport, explained that the closure of crypto exchange Kraken’s staking services may have contributed to the higher figures. Thielen said he expects a large amount of un-staked Ether from Kraken to be “recycled” back into the Beacon Chain through other entities.
Attracting Institutional Investors
While Thielen anticipates the positive price action to cool off this week amid increased selling pressure, he thinks Shapella will ultimately attract more institutional investors to stake on Ethereum.
Predictions Surpassed
The 1 million milestone is a 500% increase from an April 11 prediction by blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode, which estimated only 170,000 Ether to be un-staked after the first week of Shapella. On-chain analytics firm Nansen slightly overshot the mark, predicting 1.4 million Ether would be withdrawn after the first few days of Shapella.
