Ethereum withdrawals flatline as memecoins drive ETH burn rates higher

The total value of ether pending withdrawal has fallen below $1 billion as the leading smart-contract protocol burns its supply at an increasing rate.

The total amount of ether confirmed and queued to withdraw is approximately 488,470 coins, worth less than $900 million at current prices — significantly less than the more than $3 billion pending withdrawal in mid-April — according to data tracking website Token Unlocks.

Over the next 22 hours, approximately $7 million in ether is slated to be withdrawn.

Ether withdrawals have slowed down significantly over recent days. Source: Token Unlocks

The Shapella upgrade on Ethereum occurred just before 6:30 p.m. ET on April 12, effectively opening up staked ether withdrawals and marking the first major upgrade since The Merge transitioned the protocol to proof-of-stake last year.

Ethereum’s net staking balance is balancing out

Once significantly weighted on the withdrawal side, Ethereum net staking balance — the total amount of ether withdrawn compared to deposited — is slowly approaching parity.

Yesterday saw a net staking increase of roughly 20,960 coins, bringing the total net staking balance to -344,470 coins, or -$671.23 million, since Shanghai went live.

According to Token Unlocks, the amount of ether deposited is roughly 17.74 million, worth more than $32.5 billion.

Memecoin activity burns more ether

While Ethereum withdrawals slow down amid an increasing percentage of the total supply being staked, network activity drives burn rates even higher than in recent weeks. 

Over the past 30 days, the ether supply has decreased yearly by .611% — significantly higher than the total post-Merge burn rate of .179% per year — according to supply tracking website Ultra Sound Money.

Over the past week, the burn rate has grown even hotter at .884% per year. That means more than 20,400 ether has been burned over the last seven days — or nearly $37.9 million.

Driving the higher-than-normal burns are traders using decentralized exchanges to trade memecoins, such as PEPE and WOJACK. “Over the past week, Uniswap has consistently been the largest ETH burner due to its increased usage by memecoin traders,” The Block Research Director Steven Zheng noted.

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