New Era for Ethereum After Shanghai Upgrade – Rally +6%, Breaks $2.000 Milestone

The upgrade to blockchain Ethereum, also known as "Shapell» activated, and the network is now processing withdrawal requests. In particular, the Shanghai hard fork has been "finalized", allowing users who have staked cryptEther (ETH) coins to secure and validate transactions on the blockchain.
According to beaconcha.in, about half an hour after the upgrade was activated, about 285 withdrawals had been processed for about 5.413 ETH (worth $10 million).
The long-awaited hard fork, essentially the upgrade of the blockchain by forking a new one, has been hailed by members of the Ethereum community as a milestone, completing its multi-year transition to a full proof-of-stake network.
It is noted that in a proof-of-stake protocol, users "stake" cryptocurrencies as a form of warrantys for the security and confirmation of new data blocks.
Last year, the blockchain abandoned the proof-of-work consensus mechanism, the same one used by Bitcoin, in favor of the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, but until today users could not withdraw the Ether they had staked or cash out the earned rewards, a critical feature of the new era of blockchain.
On a stock market level, despite new coins entering the market for trading at the time the Shanghai hard fork was activated, the price of ETH remained largely flat.
As CoinTelegraph reported, according to Paul Brody, EY's global blockchain leader, an additional reason for ETH's recent price underperformance against Bitcoin could be "the battle to keep Ethereum sufficiently and properly decentralized".
Brody cites exchanges as highly centralized custodial validators, as well as some semi-centralized players and stakes that invest funds from tens of thousands of individual crypto wallets.
Also, with the fork successfully completed, all eyes were on the actual volume of unlock requests.
As CoinTelegraph reported earlier, about 44% of validators, or 248.043 of the total active 559.549, can request a partial or full withdrawal of their coins.
The majority of withdrawals are currently between 2,8 and 3,2 ETH, which suggests that these are mostly rewards being withdrawn at this time.

The Ethereum Shapella upgrade has been activated and withdrawals are processing! pic.twitter.com/Krly5GB2K7

— eric.eth (@econoar) April 12, 2023

This is good news and the market welcomes it with ETH rallying above $2000 for the first time since August 2022...

What Buterin mentioned

It is noted that around 4.000 people tuned in to a Shapella Mainnet Watch Party, organized by Ethereum Cat Herders.
In the live, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, said that “we are at a stage where the hardest and fastest parts of the transition are essentially over.
There are still very important things to be done, but these very important things can be done safely and at a slower pace."
Buterin also said that making transactions faster and cheaper will be the next issue facing blockchain after Shanghai.
"If we don't fix this thing before the next bull market, things could turn bad."
Digital asset market analysts have been speculating for months that the Shanghai hard fork would be the catalyst for either a price rally or a crash:
In other words, either its success will stimulate the market or players will cash out their ETH en masse.
Of course, there is no definite answer to this. So far, 13,81% of all ETH Tokens are participating in Staking actions, according to Rewards energys staking.
By allowing withdrawals, a significant amount of liquidity is unlocked and staking ETH owners are now able to withdraw and sell their staking portfolio.
For many investors, the percentage of coins participating in staking action, relative to the total volume, will be something to watch.
On the other hand, Staking actions with ETH may be more attractive to users due to their improved liquidity.
Those who did not want to use highly liquid staking power protocols will now have the opportunity to stake power with ETH, directly with Ethereum. This could lead to demand for ETH, due to improved conditions in energy staking.
For users who hold highly liquid native staking energy platform Tokens, their price may also be affected.
The rationale is that opening withdrawals to Ethereum removes the unique functionality that highly liquid staking energy with ETH offers.
Overall, the ability to withdraw from staking promotes a freer ETH market, in which it becomes possible for ETH holders to react to the demand and supply of staking in order to balance the market.
This can be considered a positive result because it reduces the effects of artificial control on the price and circulation of ETH.

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