Ether Hits 11-Month High After 1 Million ETH Withdrawn
- Since the Shapella hard fork on April 12, Ether has seen a price gain of nearly 10%.
- Over 1 million ETH worth $2.1 billion has been withdrawn from Ethereum’s Beacon Chain.
- The closure of crypto exchange Kraken’s staking services may have contributed to the higher figures.
Shapella Hard Fork Impact on Ether Price
Since the Shapella hard fork on April 12, Ether has seen a price gain of nearly 10%, pushing over $2,100 for the first time in 11 months. This sharp increase has come after 1.03 million ETH worth $2.1 billion were withdrawn from Ethereum’s Beacon Chain within the first four days of the Shapella hard fork. The largest withdrawal day was Saturday, April 15 with 392,800 ETH being withdrawn.
Validator Withdrawal Requests
The 1.03 million ETH withdrawals came from 473,7000 withdrawal requests and close to 87% or 469,000 validators are now able to withdraw their staked Ether. Of these validators, April 15 to 16 saw the largest Ether withdrawals processed so far with 392,800 and 280,400 Ether respectively being withdrawn.
Expectations for Staked ETH Increase
Lachlan Feeney chief executive of blockchain consulting and development firm Labrys told Cointelegraph that many validators are re-staking Ether back onto the Beacon Chain as well as liquidating after what has been nearly a 30-month wait for some. Marking Thielen head of research at digital asset platform Matrixport believes that this move will only strengthen Ethereum at the consensus level in the mid to long-term as more stake is expected to be put in place than ever before.