- Bitcoin hit $30k, and Ethereum reaches $21k soon after the Shapella upgrade.
- Staking validators hold onto their coins as the price surge continues.
The Shapella upgrade went live on April 12 and has triggered some rallies across the crypto industry. Ethereum is currently trading at $2,113.83 after surging by 9.5 percent in the last 24 hours. In the last seven days, the asset has surged by 14 percent. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has recorded some incredible rallies to hit $30,832.99 after surging by 10.5 percent in the last seven (7) days and 2 percent in the last 24 hours.
Most altcoins are also in green with Cardano and Dogecoin surging by 7 percent in the last 24 hours. Crypto-related stocks including miners Marathon Digital and Hut 8 Mining also continue their upswings with a 15 percent surge each. Investors have also sent gold above $2,050, close to its all-time high of $2,069 in 2020. Tech-focused stocks like Nasdaq and S&P 500 have also surged by 2 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
The purpose of the upgrade was to enable staking validators to withdraw their funds for the first time. As of yesterday, $34 billion or 18.14 million ether was locked in the Beacon chain contract. In 2020, many stakers pledged 32 ETH to become validators, and have not been able to access their coins since.
Market observers, therefore, expected that the Ethereum price would be plummeting after the upgrade due to selling pressure. Interestingly, that is not the case. The asset climbed past $2000 since August last year Before the upgrade, IntoTheBlock disclosed that only 0.6 percent of Ethereum validators were prepared to withdraw their funds.
Ethereum traders targeted long position accumulation
According to Ilya Volkov, CEO and co-founder of crypto trading service provider YouHodler, traders had been waiting to start a long position accumulation.
Many traders had been waiting for the end of the upgrade to start long position accumulation. Therefore, neutral news about U.S. inflation plus deferred demand pushed ETH prices up. Basically, ETH price stays in the same upward trend channel from the beginning of the year.
In his statement, it would be difficult for Ethereum to move away from a price upswing if the macroeconomic conditions do not get worse.
CoinDesk analyst Glenn Williams has disclosed that Ether deposited into ETH staking has increased since 2021.
Over the coming weeks and months, this metric will likely flatten as investors who must un-stake ETH begin the process of doing so. But for those who want to stake, Shapella’s completion signals reduced risk, increased liquidity, and brought an uptick in asset value.
Despite the many predictions that the upgrade would trigger a sell-off moment, IntoTheBlock’s data reflected reality as many stakers have held onto their coins. Amphibian Capital CEO James Hodges believes that many ETH validators were in red leading up to the event. CryptoQuant disclosed that 60 percent of the staked ETH supply or 10.3 million ETH was at a loss. However, the current rally in the crypto industry means fortune may reverse.
