- Only 0.6% of Ethereum validators have chosen to withdraw their stake after the hard fork.
- Shapella is the first time users will be able to withdraw their stake since Ethereum’s beacon chain rolled out in December 2020.
As Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade is set to launch at block 6209536, a report from IntoTheBlock shows that only 0.6% of Ethereum validators have chosen to withdraw their stake after the hard fork. Out of 562,717 validators, only 3,614 have opted for a withdrawal as of April 10.
📢A total of 3,614 out of 562,717 #ETH validators have chosen to withdraw their $ETH from staking as of yesterday. What impact, if any, will this have on #Ethereum? Share your thoughts👇
— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) April 11, 2023
The Shapella upgrade will enable ETH staking withdrawals on both Ethereum’s execution and consensus layers respectively. Shapella is a follow-up to the Merge update in September 2022, which switched Ethereum’s consensus mechanism from proof of work to proof of stake. The upgrade is expected to make the network more energy-efficient.
The Shapella upgrade will allow users to withdraw their stake since Ethereum’s beacon chain rolled out in December 2020. At present, over 18.14 million ETH worth over $34.7 billion is currently staked on Ethereum, which is roughly 15% of all ETH in circulation.
Coinbase anticipates a high volume of withdrawal requests once the update is live, which could take “weeks to months” to fully process. Experts predict that unlocking all of that for withdrawal could trigger a market dump from investors who would have otherwise cashed out by now. Following the Merge update in September, Ethereum’s price fell immediately after initially pumping in anticipation of the upgrade.
