Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade was released on Thursday, Asia time, allowing those who have staked their ether to begin the unstaking process.
On-chain data tracked by Rated network explorer shows that among all the validators moving to unstake, Kraken is currently at the top with 62% of the exit list. According to Parsec Finance, the number of validators on the exit list has exceeded 15,000 at the time of writing.
As expected, Kraken makes up the majority of the unstaking list due to the legal issues it faces with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In February, the SEC decided Kraken's staking offerings – but not other staking programs – were unregistered securities.
In a press release from February, the SEC said: “The complaint alleges that Kraken advertised that its staking investment program provided an easy-to-use platform and included benefits from of Kraken on behalf of investors, including Kraken's strategies for obtaining returns and regular investment payments.”
Kraken eventually settled with the SEC for $30 million.
Overall, the Shanghai upgrade appears to have had only a minor impact on the Ethereum protocol and its namesake token. On-chain data shows that very little ether has been withdrawn, with only a -0.25% change in staked ether, according to Nansen.ai data.
In March, CryptoQuant noted that 60% of all staked ether was at a loss and suggested that selling pressure on ether would be low after the Shanghai upgrade.
Nansen's Andrew Thurman noted on Twitter that "the majority of withdrawals are [addresses] withdrawing rewards only, not both rewards and their entire stake."
More recent data from Nansen shows the average price of staked ether on Lido is worth $2,552. Lido's liquid staking solution accounts for approximately 31% of total ether deposits.
The data shows 4.35 million ether, or about 24%, is staked at over $3000, a price not seen since April 2022.
Ether is currently trading for $1,916, according to CoinDesk pricing data.
# DeFi# ETH