Ethereum successfully implemented a long-awaited tech upgrade on April 12.
Also known as Shapella – this upgrade enabled withdrawals for the first time from the proof-of-stake blockchain.
A week later, the amount of staked Ether has now exceeded the number of ETH being withdrawn for the very first time.
- According to the on-chain analytic platform Nansen, withdrawal requests have taken a backseat while Ether is being staked at a fast pace. As of April 17th, the amount of ETH staked was recorded to be 124,000. This is almost double of ETH withdrawal which stands at 64,800.
- Over the past day alone, almost 95,000 ETH has been staked. Contrastingly, a little over 27,000 ETH was withdrawn during the same timeframe.
- Several whale accounts also have contributed to the trend. Data from Lookonchain suggests that number of whales have started restaking a notable quantity of ETH that they withdrew when the Shapella upgrade went live.
- Whale restaking further eliminates the previous concerns about a potential sell-off as a result of market flooding with millions of unlocked ETH. Additionally, the locking of the tokens creates scarcity.
- It has now over 18.6 million ETH, worth $36 billion, locked in staking contracts.
- The withdrawals hit 1 million ETH in the first week alone, but the exodus slowed down.
- Lido Finance accounted for 30.9% of Ethereum depositors, followed by Coinbase with 12.7%, Kraken with 6.9%, and Binance with 5.5%, among others.
- News of the implementation helped Ethereum climb an 11-month high above $2,100. The world’s largest altcoin even outperformed Bitcoin to register the new local peak.