As the Ethereum network prepares to fully transition to the staking consensus mechanism today, on-chain analytics platform Glassnode has developed an analysis geared towards understanding the economic implications of the unlock event.
The Verdict: Majority Of Validators Unlikely To Sell!
Approximately 18 million out of 120 million Ethereum (ETH) have already been staked in the beacon chain. Notably, Glassnode concluded that most of the Ethereum validators do not need to sell since their investments are not in profit yet. Nevertheless, a small portion of 562k validators amounting to 253 depositors on the waitlist to exit the Ethereum staking program.
“Most of them are solo-stakers or stakers from the early days of the Beacon Chain. This leads us to believe that they are the most likely to have a high conviction rate, and withdrawals are most likely related to a change in their technical setup, rather than exiting their position,” Glassnode noted.
Furthermore, almost half of the entire staked ethers is in loss, with deposits in profits amounting to about 49.7 percent.
Ethereum Price Surges Ahead Of Shanghai Upgrade
The Ethereum price has gained approximately 17 percent in the past few days leading to the Shapella upgrade to trade around $1,871 on Wednesday. As the Shanghai upgrade coincided with the CPI data, volatility in the second-largest digital asset is expected to remain high. Moreover, Eth’s price is down about 2.5 percent today, with over $16 million rekt in the Ethereum market today.
Related: Ethereum Price Prediction 2023: Here’s Where ETH Price May Reach After the Shanghai Upgrade – Coinpedia Fintech News
The Role Of Institutional Investors
The Ethereum market is heavily controlled by institutional investors as shown by the individual stakers. Notably, Lido DAO is the market leader, holding a market share of over 30 percent of the entire network stake. Centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance follow with a market share of 11.5%, 7.0%, and 5.4%, respectively.
Source: https://coinpedia.org/ethereum/ethereum-live-news-only-253-eth-validators-will-exit-their-staked-positions/