Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade Approaches
After a relatively dull 7 days in price volatility, we have seen modest gains across the top tokens. Bitcoin saw its price stabilise at around USD 29,000 over the Easter weekend, whilst ETH floated around the upper USD 1800’s before flirting with the USD 1,900 level.
Within price action, the most significant mover was Dogecoin which was down 13% over the week. Last week we noted that the token price had spiked after Twitter started using the Shiba Inu logo; this week the token has dropped after Twitter stopped using the logo!
The biggest news on the horizon though is surely the latest Ethereum upgrade. The Shanghai upgrade is scheduled for 12th April and will enable stakers to withdraw their staked ETH from the network, something that hasn’t been possible since The Merge when Ethereum moved to Proof-of-Stake.
There are many views as to what this will mean for the ETH price. With around 18m ETH currently being staked, if all stakers wanted to withdraw and sell, a tidal wave of supply would hit the market (although there are mechanisms in place meaning that only around 40,000 ETH can be withdrawn a day). Given the increase in ETH’s price since The Merge, this could be something holders would be keen to do.
On the other side, some people believe that institutions will be more likely to buy and stake ETH, as they will now (in effect) be able to withdraw and sell their staked ETH at any time, with the effect of there being net buyers in the market.
The liquid staking services (such as Lido and Rocketpool) haven’t seen a huge impact on their token prices as yet. Lido announced that users of their staking service would not be able to withdraw their ETH until May at the earliest.
Meanwhile, in another example of countries taking the opposite tack to the US with regards to crypto, the head of Thailand’s opposition party has promised to provide economic stimulus if they are elected, by airdropping the equivalent of USD 300 per person in digital currency. Touted as the most efficient way to get funds to people, it would certainly be an interesting one to watch.